A House of Cards (An alternative KR-MDS AAR)

[Kurt_Steiner]

25th November, 2004, Paris.

The unorthodox Russian declaration of war spelled doom for the Syndicalist Alliance. According to the French secret services, six Tsarist armies were advancing towards the Rhine to bosted the German defences. That mass of troops included 338,000 soldiers, 3,000 tanks, 6,400 armored vehicles and 3,600 artillery pieces, along with 700 aicraft and 600 helicopters.

Actually, there were just four Russian armies entering in Germany, one of them destined to the the Austrian front. Even the, the Russian intervention in the war had abruptly ended the chances of Syndicalist victory. Both Coulais and Tucker saw the writting in the wall and it red "Sure defeat and death" for both of them.

However, worse was to come as Francis Urquhart, knowing the that Tsar was joining the Game, decided to strike hard and to rise the bets.

 

[Asalto]

Wow Kurt, you indeed are a coup specialist with all those plots and revolts going around the world. And the mighty Tzar also has a style...attaching declaration of war to a defunct bomb?

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Well, it was a quite novel way of DoWing. You avoid wasting paper, for example

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

27th November, 2004, Paris.

Tucker and Coulais were in complete disagreement. An special meeting had been called to decide what to do now that Russia had joined the war. Bulgaria and Greece, seeing St. Petersburg joining the German side, had allied themselves with the Central Powers and had declared war to the Syndicalist alliance on the 26th. The Ottoman Empire added their own strenght on the 27th. And, apparently, the build-up of the Entente forces in Iceland had been completed, so the invasion of the British Isles looked omniously close.To make it worse, Ireland was resisting, with US and Canadian help, the raids of the RAF.

Thus, it was obvious that the Syndicalist alliance was in dire straits. Tucker was in asombre mood. He feared that they game was over. As soon as the enemy forces landed in the British Isles, the game would be over. And he was sure that this was a matter of time. He was sure, thought, that Japan was going to act in the East as soon as the United States were their hands full in Europe (in that he agreed both with Urquhart, Bush and Coulais) but the French leader disagreed with Tucker, as Coulais was sure that, as soon as Japan attacked China, the United States would thrown their might against the Empire of the Rising Sun.

As events would prove, both were right, but not in the way they had predicted.

The British Task Force in Iceland, readying itself for the invasion.​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

2th November, 2004, Washington

As the war dragged in Western Europe, Germany faced her blackest days and Japan was making war noises, the US Presidential Elections entered its decisive stage. The events taking place overseas would influence the upcoming elections.

The main question facing the Democratic Party was whether or not Clooney would be strong enough to defeat Bush, as the battles in Western Europe gave the impression that only Bush possessed the experience needed to defend the country. However, the US intervention in Vietnam had awoken some forogotten fears hidden in the American conscience, and that damagaed Bush. Then came Clooney's address during the Democratic convention that changed the situation

“Foreign events forces us to be ready both at home and beyond the seas. Our national defense had to be expanded and adjusted to meet new forms of warfare. At the same time, American citizens and their welfare had to be safeguarded no only abroad, but also at home. National unity in the United States is now essential in the face of international insecurity.

Now is the moment to postpone personal plans and partisan debate until the war is won. Now we have to think solely about both the national good and about the international scene, Because there can be no peace at home if injustice and totalitarism rules overseas."

With Clooney's popularity skyrocketing and looking at their lackluster candidate, the G.O.P. saw clearly that Bush was to be crushed by his rival in the general elections.

While Bush attended to his Presidency, Clooney strategized on how to gain it. He was portraying himself as the “peace through strength” candidate who – if elected – would do everything in his power to make America strong at home and to defeat the Syndies. He promised, too, to reduce the taxes and a cutback on the massive spending of the Government onfe the war was over. Against his rival, Clooney hit him hard again: “If Bush is given another term,” he warned the oters, “and the Syndies defeat Germany, there will be nothing to stop them from sending their ships across the Atlantic to shell our East Coast cities…or worse.”

In the final sprint to the finish, both men gave it their all. Clooney flew all over the country, seemengly been in two places at the same time and almost eclipsing Bush, who could only defended his record. Clooney counerattacked by not having done more and sooner: Bush9's reaction was to allege that the Democratic Party was soft on national defense. When the Election Day – November 5th –, with the Gallup Poll showing Clooney having almost annhilated the wide gap Bushonce enjoyed, political experts knew the election would be extremely close. Not since 1960 had the outcome been so unpredictable.

By the afternoon, early exit polling favored Clooney, while early exit polling has in the past tended to favor Republicans. Slate reports exit polls from ten states, with George Clooney winning in Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Mexico while Bush was winning in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The news worried Bush: he was in trouble.

The South sided in mass with Clooney, except for Florida, and Democratic tide went on in most of the Midwestern states. By then Bush knew was lost. After the remaining states were decided and Clooney was declared the official winner of the 2004 Presidential election, Bush addressed was heard to mutter “Dad his going to kill me for this his.”. At the same time, Clooney was being swamped by his supporters and staffers. His voice still hoarse from campaigning, he was unable to speak above the excited chant “President Clooney, President Clooney!”.

By the next morning, the final votes had been counted. In the electoral vote count, Clooney won 286 electoral votes over Bush 251..

​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

November, 2004, Washington

The world awoke on November 6th with the news that the United States had elected a new President. In the Commune de France and in the Union of Britain, Clooney’s victory was seen as a major blow. The Syndicalists were naturally concerned about his “peace through strength” platform. In Canada, Urquhart was curious to see how far the new President would go in the fight.

At once Clooney set about preparing his upcoming administration. He already had a few names in mind and began contacting them, fullfilling promises and giving rewards for the support. On November 11th, Clooney went to the White House for his first meeting with Bush. The two men were to mmet several times during the next few months, both in formal meetings and informal ones. On foreign policy, they shared the same aim: supporting the Germany and prepring to free Europe. On domestic policy, they differed a lot.

​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

28th November, 2004, Tokio.

The stalemate of the events in Asia decided the fate of Japan. After the last meeting between Koizumi and Araki, things slowed down considerably. For a brief time, it seemed as though the two had somehow managed to defeat factionalism. However, this was never the case. On the November 28th, a brief outbreak of violence would cause the Japanese military to react violently.

Colonel Saburo Bansho was a follower of Araki. Feeling that the government was "placing the military in the paws of high finance", he attempted to assasinate Koizumi with a Katana. Aizawa was arrest at once, but, as a public trial was damaging for both Koizum and Araki in different degrees, the attempted murder was kept secret and Bansho was shot and his family informed that he had been killed "during a military exercise with live ammuniiton". However, the incident became a driving force of both political discussion and conflict in the following days.

Colonel Saburo Bansho (1958-2004)​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

5th December, 2004, London

Comrade Tucker was not in the best of moods. For the last weeks, the combined might of the French and British fleets had tried to defeat or to cause great damages to the enemy Carrier Groups based around Ireland, with a less than illustrious result.

As the Canadian and US Navies had kept replacing their carriers when they were damaged, their numbers had never decreased, while the other could not be said about neither the British nor the French navies. Thus, since the began of the Irish campaign, the enemy navies had destroyed two French and one British aircraft carrier (and damaged other ships) and approximately 100 aircrafts, leaving both navies woefully prepared to face the enemy onslaught.

The considerable air power the British and the French had amassed in the British isle was thought too dangerous to bypass by both Washington and Toronto. However, Clooney and Uruqhart initially had opposing plans, with Clooney's plan centered on cutting the enemy supply lines, while Urquhart was determined to invade the British Isle. A meeting between them finally confimred the British isles as a strategic target after Clooney eventually changed his mind and agreed to Urquhart's plan.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

7th December, 2004, London

To make it worse for the Syndicalist powers, their submarine fleets were no longer capable of figthing the enemy forces with the same strenght as they had fought during the long Atlantic battle.

At the beginning of the Atlantic battle, the Union of Britain had been able to muster 15 submarines against the enemy navies. Five of those ships had been lost during the battle, plus three more undergoing extensive repairs. Furthermore, the seven SSN of the Vanquisher-class (1) were not even close to be launched.

The French submarine fleet was in no better shape. From the 25 submarines that had began the war, twelve had been sunk and three more so damaged that they were not ever to return to the sea and were being canibalized to get parts for the remaining ships. Again, the six Barracuda-class SSN submarines were not to join the French navy neither in short or a medium period of time.

From the 20 Spanish submarines (plus three more captured in Portugal at the beginning of the war), four had been lost and four more were heavily damaged. The Spanish command, pressured by the French, was considered transfering five of their boats to the French navy and anoither five to the British, but no decesion had been taken yet when the Irish crisis reupted.

Finally, Italy had a third of its submarine force (five of fifteen ships) and had resorted to re-commission five ships of the Sauro-class that had been withdrawn from active service in 2002.

The Syndicalist maritime patrol forces were in no better shape, either.

Thus, the Entente convoys were free to cross the Atlantinc ocean.

(1) The Syndie version of the Astute class

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

12th December, 2004, Ottawa

Oblivious at the Entente massing of forces in Iceland, Tucker kep his eyes fixed in Ireland. By the end of 2004, the Entente had the following units in Ireland:

From the United States, with Major General George K. Hewitt commanding the forces, the 1str and the 2nd Armored Divisions and the 1st, 3rd, 9th and 34th Infantry divisions, 55,000 troops from Canada, the 78th Infantry Division and the Commando Units 1st and 6th, under the command of Lieutenant Genreal Keith Andersen, totaling 20,000 troops.

Since the begining of the building of the Entente armies in the Emeral Isle, the British submarines operating in the eastern Atlantic area crossed by the convoys had been drawn away to attack everal of them, but without too much success.

In fact, these forces were not destined to land in Britain, but they were, if Urquhart's negotiations with the National France went well, to be shipped to North Africa.

Shadows of the American Civil War?​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

15th December, 2004, Ottawa

Since the arrival of the Entente troops to Colombia in April 2004, more than 25,000 FARC members had been killed or had deserted. According to a report from Human Rights Watch, approximately 20–30% of the recruits were minors, forced to join the FARC. The FARC had been expelled from their strongholds in the southeastern regions of Colombia', forcing them to hide primarily in remote areas in the jungle and were reduced to carry on terrorist attacks on the infrastructure. Reduced ot around 10,000 members, cut out from their foreign supply and without any possible way to get help, the FARC began to avoid engaging in outright combat with the army, instead concentrating on small-scale ambushes against isolated army units and police patrols with mortars, sniper rifles, and explosives.

Meanwhile, on the neighbouring country, Hugo Chavez, after the Daktari Ranch affair (a hypothesized plot to overthrow him with Colombian support), had become increasingly paranoid, even more with the Entente troops arriving in mass to Colombia, began to increase the repressive measures of his regime and in August 2004 began a massive witch-hunting that led to more than 30,000 people jailed charged with treason and conspiracy.

Among accusations of human rights abuses, Chavez found himself under fire when, on December 15th, the president of the National Assembly,Diosdado Cabello, claimed that Chavez was starving the country and asked the Entente powers to liberate Venezuela from the Chavez's dictatroship.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

17th-31st December, 2004, Ottawa

Cabello's statement enraged Chavez. However, before he could act, Brazil surprised him.

Premier Lula da Silva had been uncannily silent since the arrival of the Entente troops to Colombia. Suddenly, in the last weeks he had began to meet important members of his own party, of the armed forces and even some foreing ambassadors. What Lula da Silva was up to, Chavez had no idea.

Although Brazil had achieved some lasting economic reforms and limited political liberalization, the country still neded major reforms. For that reason, Luia took an unforeseen decision.

On 16 December, the government announced a "democracy package", which included trade union pluralism; freedom of association, assembly, and the press; a new electoral law; and a radical revision of the constitution, among others. On 18 December, Lula states that he was to begin negotiations with the emergent non-Communist political forces of the country. The mmeting began on December 26 and continued until the Brazilia Agreement was signed on 18 January.

The talks involved the Syndicalist Party and the, until then, illegal independent political forces: the Alliance of Free Democrats (AFD), the Brazilian Democratic Forum (BDF), the Independent Smallholdres Party (IDP), the Brazilian People's Party (BPP) and the Democratic Trade Union (DTU). At a later stage the Christian Democratic People's Party was included in the talks.

Then, on December 31st, Brazil began dismanting the border fence with Colombia. This increasingly destabilized Venezuela and Chavez's rule. Brazil, it seemed, was no longer an ally.

Then, on that very day, the Entente troops massed along the Brazilian border began to move ina direction.

To the west.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

1st January, 2005, Wester Front

The new year brought no peace the Western Front. Both sides looked at each other onminously, wondering what would come next.

In January 2005 the Syndicalist forces had destroyed the German bridgehead over the river Roer between Heinsberg and Roermond. However, the crossing of the Roer had been delayed when the Germans flooded the river valley by destroying the dam gates upstream, giving time to the German-Belgian army too withdraw east behind the Rhine.

The water had not subsided yet, so the French Ninth Army was unable to cross the Roer. Meanwhile, on the Rhine's east bank, the Russian Imperial army had deployed 30 divisions that reinforced the armies of their allies.

In spite of this fact, or because of it, the Syndicalist powers had a plan to break the stalemate before the Russian manpower decided the war. Thus, they planned the following

• The crossing of the Rhine at five points by the French First and Third Armies
• The British Army Group would ross the Rhine further north, at Rees and Wessel.
• To the South, the French Seventh Army was to attack across the Rhine in the area between Mannheim and Worms, while the Spanish First army was to launch an smaller attack at Speyer.

Once they had crossed the Rhine, the British were to advance towards Hamburg, crossing the Elbe and towards Denmark and the Baltic.The French Ninth Army, which covered the southern flank of the British Army group, and the First Army would encircle the Ruhr and push east to the Elbe and Mulde Rivers The French Third Army and the First Spanish Army were to advance to the east into western Czechoslovakia and southeast into Bavaria and Austria.

In Italy, as the poor winter weather made armoured manoeuvre and the exploitation of overwhelming air superiority impossible, coupled with the need to transfer some forces to the Balkans, it was not possible to continue the Syndicalist offensive in early 2005. Instead, the Syndicalist alliance adopted a strategy of "offensive defence" while preparing for a final attack when better weather and ground conditions arrived in the spring.

What were the Germans and Russians doing, meanwhile?

​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

5th-9th January, 2005, Tehran (Persia)

George Clooney began his tenure travelling to Tehran. There, he met his Canadian counterpart, Francis Urquhart, the German Chancellor, Claus von Stauffenberg, and the Russian Tsar, Peter IV.

They were to held a strategy meeting that was to last for four days. The main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the American and Canadian' commitment to open a second front against the Syndicalist alliance. The conference also addressed the relations of the four powers with the Ottoman Empire, Persia and the Middle East countries, operations in the Balkans, Spain and Italy and the Chineses question.

The U.S.A and Canadan wanted to set clear the conditions under which they would open a new front by invading the Union of Britain. Up to this point, the former US president, George Bush, had advocated the expansion of joint operations of American and Commonwealth forces in the Mediterranean, but it was a quite complicated task that was not see as a viable goal. Urquhart was in favour of invading the Union of Britain first, that would help to attack France. Peter IV agreed to support it by launching a major offensive on the Western front to divert French and British forces .

Persia and the Ottoman Empire were discussed in detail. If both countries entered the war, Russia was required to pledge support them with the help of Delhi. While Clooney stressed that it would also be most desirable if they entered the war on their side in the next six months, Urquhart was not sure about that, as it would enhance the Russian influence upon them.

Peter IV dominated the conference. He used the prestige of his victories against Ukraine and in the Central Asia plus the effort that his armies were doing the help Germany, so he pressed his allies to invade Britain at once and asked them to confirm what he had agreed with Germany and confirm his influence area, something that Urquhart hated inwardly.

Omniously, the Chinese question was not mentioned by neither of them.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

11th January, 2005, Tehran (Persia)

A consequence of the Tehran conference was that Croat and Serb Partisans were given full Entente support, including the Chetniks and the Ustaša. Thus, this help was to play a decisive contribution to launching the Chetnik insurrection of 2005 that began in north Dalmatia, Knin, Obrovac and Benkovac, led by Vojislav Šešelj, Vuk Drašković, and Mirko Jović. The leader of the Ustaša, Slavko Kvaternik, was to try a general rising in Zagreb to issue the proclamation of the Independent State of Croatia, with him as "Poglavnik" — a Croatian approximation to "Leader".Kvaternik hoped that his followers in Dalmatia and Krk, Rab, Korčula, Biograd, Šibenik, Split, Čiovo, Šolta, Mljet and part of Konavle and the Bay of Kotor were to join the rebellion.

Urquhart, on his part, hoped that , with a bit of luck, the Chetniks and the Ustaša would cause as much damage to the Syndicalist forces than to each other. Thus, with a bit of luck, by the time that the Entente Forces arrived there, both Chetniks and Ustaša wouod be near mutual extinction and thus the allies forces would only had to do a bit of clean up of the remaning brigands.

With luck...

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

15th January, 2005

On 15th January, 2005, a massive earthquake sets off a powerful Tsunami, heavily damaging coastal regions in Indonesia, Thailand, India, and even as far away as Somalia. According to the Thai National Disaster Relief Coordination Agency, 126,915 people died and 37,063 werel missing. In addition, around 655,000 people became homeless and had to be sheltered in refugee camps across the country.

Many nations pledged to donate humanitarian aid. Japan send a Task Force centered on an aircraft carrier to help the Indonesian navy in the rescue of the victims in the affected areas. However, for several weeks the help remained in the harbours due to a lack of accessible roads and available airfields and a shortage of helicopters and trucks. An Australian ship carrying helicopters set sail, but did not reach Sumatra until 4 February 2005.

It is estimated that the earthquake and the tsunami killed 250,000 people in 14 countries

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

20th January - 5th February, 2005

On January 20th, 2005, Ecuador formally petitioned to join the Entente. Then the nightmare for Chaves began.

As the Entente build up in Colombia was finished, on January 20 Canadian Marines and US Special Forces landed by surprise in Suriname to prevent the Venezuela from turning that country into some sort of Amazon redoubt.

Then, the invasion of Venezuela began two days later. US/Canadian troops crossed the border from Barinas to the south up to Maracaibo in the north, facing resistance from various Venezuelan military formations, reinforced by droves of poorly trained militians that were thrown against the enemy onlsaught. However, the battle was decided even before started and the Venezuelan forces were thrown back in disarray.

However, it took almost two weeks for the Entente troops to reach the outskirts of Caracas. The allied forces faced heavy resistance as they moved slowly and methodically through Caracas' outskirsts, defended by a mixture of Venezuelan regular and militian forces, that resorted to sniping and ambushing the attackers, causing a high rate of casualties.

Urquhart, not willing to stand that, forced the attack to be stopped and then used a terrible weapon: carpet bombing with the Lancaster II bombers

​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

6th Febuary 2005

Rashid Ali al-Gazhani staged a coup d'état and overthrew the Turkish governor in Bagdad, and proclaimed the Free State of Iraq. The Ottoman military forces were torned by al-Gazhilani's actions, as some of them joined the new state, while a few of them remained loyal to their masters. Thus began a short war between the Iraqi forces and the Ottoman units under the comand of General Abd al-Ilah. During the subsequent Turkish-Iraqi War (February 6 - March 5), Canada send forces to help Iraq, while Russia, that nominally massed several divisions along the border with both Iraq and the Ottoman Empire, while increasing its influence over Persia.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

5th - 12h February, 2005

While the invasion of Venezuela marched at full steam, two brigades of Canadian Marines landed in Ecuador on February 5th, after President Lucio Gutiérrez was removed from office by General Carlos Mendoza and the Congress named then Vice President, Gustavo Noboa, took his place. Noboa was the wealthiest man in Ecuador, and President Clonney had strong feelings about having him as president of Ecuador, as he doubted that he was a real democract or good atall for the country, and so he told to Uruqhart, who was aghast by Clooney's suspicions.

Then, suddenly, on 9th February, the New York Times claimed that Noboa's banana exporting company, Exportadora Bananera Noboa, was been audited by international organisations due to child labor issues and strike conflicts. Two days later, while still claiming his innonce, Noboa resigned from his post and was replaced by Alfredo Palacio, who would run the country until the presidential elections, that were totake place in September.

Luis Alfredo Palacio González (1939),
the provisional President of Ecuador​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

21st February, 2005

The war against the Syndicalist alliance was at full steam. It had gathered such a momentum that the flood of volunteers to join the fight had surprised the Entente commanders.

From the Ottoman Empire had arrived a continuos flow of anti-syndicalist volunteers, ready to join the war. Thus, after seven months of training, a whole infantry division had been formed with those young soldiers. Also, the arrival of Cossack volunteers from the Don-Kuban area had been so great that two divisions were being formed and trained in Canada. Only the long trip was the cause for the delay of the units entering into the fight. In fact, a whole regiment of Russian and Cossack volunteers, the Infantry Regjment. 436 under colonel I.N.Kononov, was in Iceland as a part of the invasion fleet that was to land in Britain.

There was also the Croatian Legion (Hrvatska Legija),with the size of an infantry regiment, which was not an official part of the Canadian army but it was placed under Canadian military jurisdiction and direct Canadian command throughout its existence. It had been also shipped to Iceland. It fielded a mixture of Croatian, White Russian and Ukranian volunteers on its ranks, and it had two reserve batallions in Canada that were used to train the new recruits that kept comming.

Then there was the Légion des volontaires français (Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism), made up of right-wing National Frenchmen and French prisoners of war who preferred fight. This step had been also followed by Germany and now the Kaiser's army was forming the se-called Tricolor Regiment (La légion tricolore). Thus, while the German mustered almost a complete French infantry regiment (the 638th), 2,452 men strong, Urquhart could only muster two batallions, plus a third one being created to compensate for the losses.

Finally, to Urquhart's surprise, the young Jose María Aznar had been loyal to his word and the Legión española de voluntarios contra el sindicalismo (Legion of Spanish Volunteers Against Syndicdalism) had grown up to become a whole division and ther were still enough volunteers to form another one which was also being trained.