[War] France: A Change in the Agenda, Episode III: Revenge of the Persians

[Daniel Garcia]

"France:  A Change in the Agenda, Episode III:  Revenge of the Persians"
President Pierre Legrand, French Republic
April 22, 2014

(OOC:  This should take place the morning of the invasion, before the  
US-France joint post...  It's been a long time cooking...)

When the first reports had come through indicating that the Iranian  
army might have invaded Azerbaijan while Legrand was having breakfast,  
his response to all comers was the same.  There was too little  
information to act just right now.  Gather more information, cooperate  
with the Minister of Defense in charge, and come back later.  Legrand  
was calm but firm with even the most insistent and agitated of  
comers.  He had conceded, at the insistence of his friend and Prime  
Minister, Guatier Tessier, that a major nerve center be set up in the  
Élysée Palace.

As Pierre ate, Noele took in her husband carefully.  His morning  
routine had been disturbed but not altered.  Noele shook her head at  
her husband.

"You know there's apparently a war on," she remarked as Pierre turned  
the page of the morning paper.  He nodded, but did not distract  
himself from his reading.  "You remember you are President of France?"

Legrand here glanced amusedly at his wife.  "Yes, my dear.  And before  
you bring it up, even Presidents can only do so much at times.  There  
will be time for action later."

He then picked up and sipped from a glass of orange juice, continuing  
his always leisurely breakfast, before continuing, "Besides, there are  
many very capable people who work for me who will make most of the  
decisions and do most of the work.  If I tried to do it all myself,  
I'd end up like the American President Williams."

Noele laughed at this playfully.  "I would like that very much, I  
think!  After all, President Williams and his family get to spend time  
in Hawaii!  If your doctor ordered you to relax, perhaps then we could  
go to Tahiti!"

"I'm sure that would be wonderful," Legrand said smiling, "except that  
I would burn to a crisp within moments of arriving."

Legrand continued to peruse the morning paper.  Noele shook her head  
in amusement.  Legrand saw it, and gave her a good natured look so as  
to say that he knew what he was doing.

"What will France do," Noele asked after a few moments.  Legrand kept  
reading, but after a few moments responded.

"That will depend upon what the Iranians do," he said.  "It will  
depend upon the Americans.  It will depend upon the rest of the  
European Union.  And NATO.  And the United Nations.  But, in the end,  
I do not think that the Iranian invasion can be allowed to go  
unanswered.  Such a serious breach of international law, if left  
unpunished, would set a dangerous precedent."

He had said that without seemingly pausing in his reading of the paper  
in front of him, though when he finished he again paused to sip at his  
glass of orange juice.  "So it will be war," Noele asked, uncertain.   
Legrand, his hand still on the glass of orange juice, looked at the  
glass for a moment before responding.

"If the Iranians take it that far, perhaps," he said carefully.   
"Though there are many considerations which will need to be taken into  
account."

Noele looked as if she were going to ask a follow up when Gautier  
Tessier burst into the room, leaving a somewhat dumbstruck aide at the  
door.  Legrand turned to face his friend warmly.

"Gautier, you're manners are impeccable as usual," Legrand said  
lightly.  Gautier stopped and looked as though he were at a loss for  
words, a rare moment for the man.

"Pierre, I will never understa...  How...," Gaitier tried.  Finally,  
"You know there's a war on, don't you?!"

Legrand laughed at the question which Noele had asked but a few  
minutes before.  "Yes, I do.  Though I don't see how not eating  
breakfast, or even rushing breakfast, will improve the situation."

"You may find it funny," Gautier said, turning red with frustration,  
"but there's a lot of people all round the world very worried about  
this.  And here you are, head of state of one of the five Permanent  
Members of the United Nations Security Council, as if you didn't have  
a care in the god damned world!"

The last had been shouted.  Legrand shook his head with an oh so  
slight look of amusement before sighing, and taking one last sip of  
his orange juice.  Leaving the morning paper in his seat, he walked  
over to Noele, and kissed her on the forehead.  "I will see you late  
tonight I think," he said to her before walking to Gautier who looked  
to be calming down now that there was hope that Legrand was taking  
things seriously.  Or at least more seriously.

Legrand picked his jacket off his chair, and carefully put it on.   
Gautier wasn't wearing his jacket, his tie was somewhat loosened and  
his sleeves rolled up.  Even without the jacket, with his silk vest  
and neat tie, Legrand looked more composed and more distinguished.   
Jacket on, he walked with Gautier in silence into the hallway, and  
began heading towards the hive of activity in the Élysée Palace where  
the French government was beginning to understand what was underway in  
the Caucasus.

"So what news," Legrand said as they walked.  Gautier shook his head.

"Still fragmentary," Gautier admitted, realizing as he said it that  
Legrand could, if it were his nature, pounce on him for that.  He just  
shook his head.

"I presume that we're taking steps to rectify that," Legrand said,  
only half questioningly.  Before Gautier could respond, he added,  
"Including discussions and exchanges with our allies."

"We will have some satellite intelligence by the end of the day,"  
Gautier said.  "As to intelligence exchanges, things have been  
happening too fast."

"I see," Legrand said, nodding.  "That should be a priority.  Not only  
will it help us understand what is going on, but whatever course of  
action we take we will need to cooperate fully with our allies."

"You can say that again," Gautier said, suddenly frustrated.  "Our  
friends in the Air Force had some bad news this morning."

"Oh," Legrand said evenly.

"It seems a Rafale fighter had an engine fire during an exercise,"  
Gautier said.  Then, more quietly, "The pilot was killed."

Legrand didn't miss a step, but simply nodded.  "Has the family been  
notified?"

"Yeah," Gautier said.  But then shook his head.  "But our fleet of  
Rafales has been grounded.  They're saying it might be a design  
problem with the engine.  If that's true, the French Air Force is  
largely neutered."

"What about our Mirage fighters," Legrand asked, trying to remember  
the force status of the Air Force.

"We can scrape together a couple squadrons, I'm told," Gautier said as  
they entered a room buzzing with activity.  "But between the fact that  
they were being phased out and that there were already major  
maintenance problems, we're at a major disadvantage."

"Who's working on that," Legrand said, surveying the scene.  Men, and  
a handful of women, in uniform and civilian clothes were either  
hunched over computer screens, gathered together in discussion, or  
were hurrying to and fro.  In short, it was a bit chaotic.  Gautier  
strained to look around before seeing who he was looking for and  
heading in that direction.  He stopped in front of a man in an Air  
Force uniform.

"What's the story on the Rafale issue," Gautier asked the man, who was  
somewhat startled by being addressed so directly by France's Prime  
Minister.  Particularly with France's President standing behind him,  
though admittedly the look on the President's face was much more  
friendly than that on the Prime Minister's.

"Well," the officer said, regaining his composure, "we're in  
discussions with Dassault and SNECMA on the issue.  To be honest no  
one's quite sure what the problem is or how difficult it will be to  
fix.  If it's something relatively minor with the engine, it shouldn't  
take too long to get back to operational capability.  If not..."

"Well, if you haven't noticed, there's a war on, so I'd like to know  
if it's conceivable that we have an air force to work with if that  
becomes necessary," Gautier said without patience.  Legrand put his  
hand on his shoulder.

"Now, now, Gautier," Legrand said before speaking to the Air Force  
officer.  "We need to know what can be done about this.  As far as I  
can tell, this is going to need to be the Air Force's priority at the  
moment.  Get me a report on what the problem is and, more importantly,  
if it can be solved relatively quickly and if so how much doing so  
will cost."

The man nodded his head in understanding before saluting.  Legrand  
smiled and bowed slightly in acknowledgement.  He had never himself  
been in the military.  With that, Legrand walked away with Gautier to  
let the officer get back to work.

"Where's the next fire," Legrand said with a kind of grim amusement.   
They approached what seemed to be the central gaggle of people.  An  
older officer, apparently the one in charge here, saluted.

"Mr. President, I'm General Pepin," he said.  Legrand acknowledged him  
and he stopped saluting.  "I'm from the CGA and will be coordinating  
things from this end."

"What can you tell us about what is happening over there," Legrand  
asked.  Pepin shook his head.

"Damned little at the moment, sir," he said, turning to gesture at a  
map of the region on a screen.  "We're waiting for one of our  
reconnaissance satellites to pass over the region later in the day, so  
we're mostly working off of reports from the press and our embassy  
staff in Baku.  The Iranians don't, for the moment, seem to be  
thrusting towards the capital or the traditional oil producing regions  
along the Caspian Sea.  They went right for the new oil fields which  
came online recently near Xankandi, in part of the breakaway Nagorno- 
Karabakh region claimed by Armenia.

"The terrain there is fairly rugged, so the Iranians have committed  
significant numbers of airborne troops, if reports are correct.   
Armored columns have also been sites crossing the border at several  
points.  At the moment, it looks like they're heading for the oil  
fields and not much else, but it's too early to tell," Pepin concluded.

"Supposing," Legrand said carefully after a moment, "that events  
necessitate eventual military action, what recommendations do you have?"

"Mr. President," Pepin said, "the French armed forces should be put on  
alert, and preliminary preparations for possible deployment should be  
begun.  Mostly making sure that people are where they need to be and  
planning for any move that it becomes necessary to make.  If I might  
also say, an effort should be made to begin coordinating with our  
allies as soon as possible.  I can not envision a scenario where  
French forces will be fighting on their own.  If it comes to war, we  
will be fighting alongside our allies."

The general stopped here for a moment, weighing words which would make  
the French establishment cringe.  "Sir, the planning and possibly the  
eventual military action will need to be carried out under the aegis  
of NATO."

"That seems reasonable," Legrand said, not missing a beat.  "General  
Pepin, you have my authorization to begin planning for the possible  
contingencies and to begin alerting the armed forces.  I will, given  
your opinion, begin contacting our allies to lay the ground so that  
the planning might be broadened alliance wide."

Pepin nodded firmly, and Legrand turned away thinking.  Gautier  
hurried to his side.

"If it comes to subordinating our efforts to NATO, there will be many  
unhappy people in this country," Gautier cautioned.  Legrand looked up  
from his thoughts and shook his head with a small smile.  He turned to  
survey the scene around him.

"There will be many unhappy people in this country in any event,"  
Legrand said, looking at nothing and no one in particular.  "There's  
no avoiding that.  I will do what is best for France, even if it means  
subordinating our efforts to NATO.  We might be able to fight this war  
on our own, but it would be difficult and bloody and leave us  
wondering why we did it at all.  By its nature, this is an issue of  
international interest.  Our standing in the world demands me make a  
great effort.  But our realities demand that we be prepared to  
sacrifice some of our pride for the greater good."

The two of them stood there silently before Legrand again turned and  
headed towards his office.  Gautier was following him.

"I assume Renaud is already at work on some statement of  
condemnation," Legrand stated, not really asking.  He then smiled.   
"Let him know that if his impulse would be to word it very strongly, I  
would not in the least object.  Also, have him begin getting in touch  
with our allies, to sound them out on the matter and present our  
position, and if it seems favorable, to propose joint planning for  
eventualities."

"What do I tell him our position is," Gautier asked.  Legrand stopped,  
reached in his vest pocket for his watch and checked the time  
carefully before replying.

"France will not allow, under any circumstances, this invasion to  
stand," Legrand said.


ACTIONS:

1)  With respect to the issues with the Rafale's engine:  find out  
what the problem is, and figure out a fix (or an array of possible  
fixes).  It should be understood that there's a war brewing and it's  
uncomfortable to essentially not have an Air Force.

2)  The French military makes initial preparations for *possible*  
deployment, and begins initial planning for such.  (OOC:  Note also  
that more wide-scale and operational planning, under NATO's aegis, was  
provided for in the US-France JP.)

3)  France *strongly* condemns the Iranian invasion and *demands* the  
Iranians withdraw from Azeri territory.  Not only has the Iranian  
government violated the sovereignty of another state, it has done so  
under the flimsiest of pretenses for obviously economic motives.

4)  Begin getting in touch with France's allies (NATO states, the EU,  
and other friendly nations) expressing France's concern and urging a  
hard line against the Iranians.