[War] US: Meet The Press!

[John Penta]

"Meet the Press!"
15 June 2014
President John Williams
USA
======
<The White House>

    The "Meet The Press" fanfare began, a slower tempo than normal, as
the camera faded in on the White House, then the Solarium - normally
Luke's playroom lately, but now cleaned up for use as an interview
room.

    Well, mostly. Tim Russert had to help find the toys everybody had
missed. Not many, but the stuffed monkey had POTUS facepalming.

    Mom gathered up Luke - and Monkey - and carried them out as the
voiceover faded.

    "Well, Mr. President. This is the Williams White House," Tim began, smiling.

    "Toyland. Not the -whole- White House, but this is normally Luke's
playroom."

     "The West Wing is neater?"

     "Infinitely. I'm neat, by training if not habit; Kay is mostly
neat. Luke has no clue of the concept yet," John said with a smile.

      "You were recently put on the DL, so to speak, by your
physician. How are you now?"

      "In excellent health generally. My physical, as everybody knows
by now, came back clean. The Presidency has its strains, and I forgot
myself amidst dealing with the office. That involuntary vacation
helped me find the balance again."

      "Why then did you expand the White House medical unit?"

      "Tim, the Medical Unit deals with the health of everybody who
works here - from me to the newest intern to the lowest ranking Marine
sentry. In part, it was necessity - when I noted that the
psychological division had operational support duties, for example, I
did mean that; we've needed psych support on negotiations for a while,
particularly in a crisis. We've had it, but not internally to the
White House. This *gives* me a comprehensive medical support staff
that's used to White House routines. In part, it was simple
modernization - if I wind up setting a trend, we'll simply need *more*
than an internist to handle the health of a President and their
family. Finally, this is a stress-filled job, with burnout being such
an issue that most staff don't last more than 2 years. That's bad for
the country. If an expanded medical unit serving everyone who works
here can reduce that, say through physical training, psychological
counseling to deal with stress, or simple help with diets, then it'll
practically pay for itself."

    "Mr. President, what's the White House assessment of the situation
with Iran?"

    "Tim...If you would, walk with me. I'd like to show, not just tell."

    The two got up and walked over to a table equipped with MS
Surface, on which a map of the crisis area was displayed. A red
overlay marked Iranian-held areas, and a green coloring marked
unoccupied areas of Azerbaijan. Pictures appropriate to unit type
marked Iranian units visible by commercial satellite imagery - what
was safe to show on global TV.

     "Tim, right now, Iran controls the area shaded in red. Green
areas are held by the Government of Azerbaijan. The yellow borders
mark the international borders. The blue line is the route of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which carries a million barrels of
oil per day to Turkey, and from there to the world markets."

      "The Iranians seem dangerously close to it."

       "Yes. If they cut that pipeline, well, that's a million barrels
a day off the world market, and a not-inconsequential amount of oil
under the control of what can pretty easily be called a power hostile
to the West. As has been indicated pretty firmly, that's not an
outcome we or our allies are going to accept."

        "And yet you're not going immediately to war?"

        "I've seen war with my own eyes, Tim. I don't welcome it. I
will give the Iranian government every chance to end this without
violence. I will use every lever of economic and other pressure that I
can to achieve our objectives. But Tim, it will be the Iranian
government that chooses whether or not we engage in combat. If we do,
then we will not be sparing in our efforts. We will fight clean, we
will fight honorably, we will wage a just war...And we will fight to
win indisputably."

         "And now, a brief break for our sponsors."
---
Actions:
1. Tim Russert Lives.
2. Start prepping the American people for what looks likely to be war.