A House Divided Read online

  Contents

  Copyright Notice

  Author’s Note

  Epigram

  Prologue: For the Duration

  Chapter One - Murder-Suicide

  Chapter Two - Bleeding Canada

  Chapter Three - That Which Cannot Go On...

  Chapter Four - Counteroffensives

  Chapter Five - John Brown

  Chapter Six - Escalation

  Chapter Seven - Pathways

  About the Author

  A House Divided: The Second Civil War (Volume One)

  Copyright 2013, Adam Teiichi Yoshida

  Author's Note:

  This is a work that lends itself to multiple interpretations. I set out, in writing it, simply to answer a question that had been posed to me: what kind of event is big enough (in terms of scale) to follow the Third World War? The only reasonable answer that I came to – at considerable length – was the Second Civil War.

  I do not intend this as a work that advocates the events it depicts. I can think of no worse tragedy for the human race and for the American (and Canadian) people than the events depicted in "A House Divided" along with its forthcoming sequels. However, I would note that I would also argue that the events depicted here are certainly a possible consequence if certain trends are allowed to continue indefinitely and if human nature continues to be what it has always been.

  Indeed, I am troubled by the Gibbon quote that I have chosen as an epigram: when limited and representative government is replaced by a form of democracy characterized by the demagogic mobilization of the masses of the people it has always ended in bloodshed, war, and despotism. That was the fates of Athens, when the Athenian people in their great assemblies repeatedly made foolish and stupid decisions that doomed them to defeat in their long war against the Spartans. That was also true of the Roman Republic, where ambitious politicians decided to buttress their own power by acting as the voice of the downtrodden people only to soon find the system of checks and balanced created by the Roman constitution destroyed amid an endless cycle of mob violence, revolts, coups, purges, and wars that was broken only when Augustus snuffed out the flame of Roman liberty and replaced it with a system of outwardly-Romanized despotism. Will America and the other liberal states of the 21st century share that fate? The question is not yet answered.

  How far can free people be pushed by would-be dictators before some kind of break becomes inevitable? I don't know that either.

  What I do know is that, ultimately, what Christ said and Abraham Lincoln later invoked is fundamentally true: a house divided against itself cannot stand. We cannot remain half-slave and half-free. In the end our societies will have to become either all one thing or all the other and, if we are not stalwart from the first step in the defense of liberty, we may one day find ourselves charged with making the same sort of terrible decisions as our ancestors once made.

  Let no one mistake this for a manifesto or a fantasy. This is not what I want to have happen. This is a warning. This is what may very well happen if the trend towards majoritarian despotism in our society is not checked, especially at a time when our resources are increasingly strained by the demands placed upon them. If we accept the unrestricted right of the state to confiscate whatever resources it needs to meet the supposed needs of an ever-greedier electorate, we risk setting off the sort of vicious cycles set out in this book: demands create resistance, which leads to a hardening of positions, which leads each side to believe itself justified in exceeding the ordinary bounds of political life, which leads us into hellish nightmares from which who knows what shall emerge.

  Let us pray that we have the wisdom to guide ourselves to a place where we never have to make the decisions that those people (or the characters in this work) had to make.

  Adam Yoshida

  Vancouver, British Columbia

  February 2013

  "And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."

  Matthew 12:25 (King James Version)

  "Under a democratical government, the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude."

  - Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume One, Chapter Two

  Prologue: For the Duration

  The whoosh produced as the blades of the UH-60 Blackhawk sliced through the air was the only audible sound as Major General Anthony Gallo made his final approach to Colorado Springs. As the helicopter moved across the war-ravaged landscape, the General and his aides turned their heads to survey the damage below.

  "Do you know if we're still landing at Peterson?" asked Colonel Andrea Martinez, Gallo's blonde-haired quarter-Latino Chief of Staff, finally breaking the silence.

  "I don't think so," Gallo shook his head. "The field there was too damaged for the plane to land. That's why they diverted us. My understanding is that we're headed direct for Cheyenne."

  General Gallo was a veteran of the Kuwait, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Many decades earlier, as a fresh West Point graduate, he'd spent his days in Germany staring to the east wondering if the day would ever come when his Platoon would be called upon to counter a Soviet thrust across the Fulda Gap. His time as the Adjutant General of the Texas National Guard was supposed to be a quiet and dignified cap to a mildly-distinguished career. Never for a single moment had he expected battles with fellow Americans to be a part of that.

  "We'll be landing in a few minutes," the pilot announced to his passengers.

  Acting President – he always placed an emphasis on the former word – Terrance Rickover shivered in his overcoat as he and his aides awaited the approach of their visitors.

  "Among the many hardships of this war," the Acting President declared, trying to lighten the mood ever-so-slightly, "is that it has deprived us of a Christmas spent in sunnier climates. One wonders why any Coloradan would have a problem with global warming."

  He had a further thought, but was cut off by the noise of the approaching helicopter. Once the Blackhawk landed, General Gallo was the first to the door. The General walked up to Rickover and saluted. The Acting President returned the salute.

  "Mr. President," Gallo declared with careful formality, "I have been ordered by the Governor of Texas to report to you and to place myself and the forces under my command at the disposal of the legitimate Federal Government for the duration."

  "That is a fine thing, General," said Rickover. "Let's go inside and talk it over."

  Colorado Springs had been established as the temporary capital in the immediate aftermath of the Great Mutiny simply because it was one of the few places where units of the Armed Forces had retained sufficient cohesion to remain combat-effective, where senior military leadership recognized the authority of the Congressional Federal Government, and where resources existed to allow for the command and control of the other strategic assets that likewise recognized the new Federal Government as legitimate. That the government of the State of Colorado continued to recognize the Washington government as the real government had initially created some awkwardness, but it was nothing that couldn't be resolved through compromise, listening, and a day-long shootout in Denver. The initial plan had been to use the campus of the U.S. Air Force Academy as temporary office space. However, once the shooting started, it had been decided that it would be wise to relocate the Acting President, along with the military leadership, to the former NORAD facility at Cheyenne Mountain, which could stand up to anything short of multiple direct nuclear impacts.

  "Our forces here remain pretty minimal," the Acting President ruefully admitted. "The 101st Airborne
came out of then Great Mutiny relatively intact, but they're pretty light on heavy weapons. We have them patrolling most of the routes from the East, and we have a sizeable force in reserve in the form of the 81st Brigade – they managed to make their way here from Washington and their Abrams proved to be pretty useful in turning back that initial attack down the I-70 towards Denver."

  "It looks like they tore Peterson a new asshole, however. Couldn't even put our C-17 down there," noted Gallo directly.

  "Yes. I don't think that they initially had a good grasp on what sort of forces we actually had here. They tried to move a division – it's a force that they call the 'First Infantry Division', but it's scratched together from whatever loyalist forces they could find all across the East – and I don't think that they thought that we had much more here in terms of an organized army than some light infantry. They were definitely surprised to find that we had a heavy brigade. Their advance broke right down in the face of that."

  "Which," Mark Preston, the Secretary of Defense, added, "is a damned good thing because, even though we have better unit cohesion, the 81st made their way here in the late fall over rough roads. They didn't bring anything that they didn't carry with them, which means that we're damned short of ammunition and everything else."

  "We can do a thing or two about that," said General Gallo, carefully taking notes. "Both Fort Hood and Fort Bliss fell, really without a fight, into our hands during the mutiny. We had some desertions and some fighting, but the 36th Division is intact as a combat force. Of course, 1st Cavalry was overseas, along with a Brigade Combat Team from the 1st Armored Division, but we've managed, between the rest of the 1st Armored Division, reserve units, mobilization of the Texas State Guard, and the selective induction of new volunteers with military experience managed to patch together something resembling a second complete division."

  "The ammunition alone is a great help. The loyalists blew most of what was at Fort Carson on their way out, and they've been hitting us from the air. Not just with our own guys, but with EuroFighters, Rafales, and MiGs too. Motherfuckers," said the Acting President.

  "Well, we've brought what could be spared. The 36th Division, the Governor judged, is required at home, in case of a Loyalist incursion into Texas. But we've got two brigades worth of the 1st Division on their way to here, along with myself and my staff. The Governor, Mr. President, appreciates your discretion in not directly Federalizing the force; we still have a somewhat awkward position in the Legislature between the Loyalist faction and a number of outright secessionists who would, of course, rather that we keep all of our men at home."

  "Whatever you can do, General, we appreciate it more than I could ever begin to say."

  Major General William Jackson's command still, in his opinion, lacked a proper name. The U.S. Army's high command had, after some debate, accepted it for service and designated it as the 200th Infantry Division. Of course, technically speaking, his entire division – really an enlarged brigade of just over ten thousand men and women – was also the First Armored Division of the Western Republic Army. Naturally, there had been a great deal of reluctance on the part of the Army to accept a foreign formation into U.S. military service, but the exigencies of the present emergency had required a certain flexibility and relaxation of standards. And, in any case, as Jackson had repeatedly pointed out in his presentation to the Acting President, a majority of the officers of the Division, along with many of the Non-Commissioned Officers and a number of the ordinary soldiers, were veterans of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and all of the rest were equally willing to fight for the American cause. It made no sense, Jackson argued, to break up an effective and veteran fighting force that volunteered for service, especially right before a major battle. Finally, bowing to a direct Presidential order, the Army had agreed and Jackson, the hero of Thunder Bay, had been given a direct commission as a brevet Major General of volunteers.

  Still, even Presidential patronage had only gone so far. The Sixth Army headquarters, as the highest-ranking organizational element to come over to the rebel cause, had taken over as the senior command. The organized military forces of the rebellion were, in turn, operationally commanded by Lieutenant General Wallace Falcon of the III Corps. While he appreciated any assistance that could be given, General Falcon was not eager to see this strange and unasked-for pseudo-Canadian formation take a starring role in an American matter. For that reason, the 200th Division had been deployed not along the expected axis of enemy advance, the I-70, but to cover the flank of the rest of the III Corps along U.S. Route 50.

  One of the most profound effects of the Great Mutiny had been the return of the "fog of war", especially for the rebel side. A large number of surveillance satellites had been purposefully destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of one faction or the other. Since that point, determined hackers on both sides had waged a constant campaign of communications disruption that made satellites both untrustworthy and only intermittently available. Even with most of the personnel of the Strategic Command and the vital facilities at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base (before the latter was bombed, at any rate) fighting for the rebels, it had not yet been possible to provide the Sixth Army with anything like the level of battlefield intelligence to which it was accustomed.

  This had led, in Jackson's view, to a certain lamentable hesitancy on the part of the Sixth Army and the rest of the rebel armed forces. More organized forces had taken up with the rebels than had joined the loyalists. The multi-month pause during which negotiations had been sought and a consolidation on both sides had taken place had allowed the Loyalists not only to patch together new units, but also to bring in foreign military forces.

  At least, on December 23rd, the presence of a number of drones had allowed the 200th Division and the rest of the Sixth Army to gain tactical, if not strategic, warning.

  "General," the Division S2 declared on entering headquarters shortly after midnight, "our Predators have observed movement of a force of at least divisional size along U.S. 96. We do not have a unit identification yet, though we expect to have that shortly. Both Armor and Mechanized infantry. The vehicles appear to be American-made, though who knows as to the personnel. Abrams, Bradleys, and Strykers."

  "Alright," replied Jackson softly. "Let's raise III Corps and let them know what we've got incoming. See if they can get us some air support."

  "Well, gentlemen," he declared, standing up and straightening his jacket, "I suppose we'd better get to it."

  In less than six hours the first great battle of the Second Civil War would be fought some 40 miles to the east of Pueblo, Colorado.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Murder-Suicide

  On the last good evening out of more than a thousand to come, House Majority Leader Terrance Rickover of Virginia stood before a thousand people in the Great Hall of the Cooper Union in New York City.

  "The great contest of our age is the struggle between those who want to work, to create, and to enjoy the rewards of their own efforts and ingenuity and those who believe that the world owes them a living by the virtue of their existence alone. Those on the side of the creators would never begrudge any man or woman the rewards of their service, be they ever so large or ever so small. We believe, in the immoral words of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal and that, having been created equal in the eyes of the supreme governor of the universe – whether that force be either scientific of supernatural – that they are entitled by right to pursue their own path to life, liberty, and happiness by whatever means are open to them and furthermore, given that this right is inalienable and natural, that they are entitled to do so without being subjected to arbitrary and unnatural restrictions upon it.

  "The contrary view – and I will grant that it is a popular one in this day and age – is that humanity is a collective and not a collection of individuals. The collectivist believes that the will, the happiness, and the liberty of the individual must be sublimate
d to the betterment of the collective, that individual action contrary to the will of the collective must be curtailed and even stopped, and that only those differences between individuals that are somehow – in their judgement – to the benefit of the collective ought to be permitted.

  "You will hear the argument – and I hear it every single day in Washington – that how can we permit some to have so much when others have so little. You will hear that some do not 'need' their money while others have such desperate need of it and, therefore, it is not only the right but, in fact, the obligation of the state to take it upon itself to equalize this distance between needs and requirements.

  "Of course, rarely is much thought given over to who defines such needs. The decision is instead submitted to the capricious will of an arbitrary majority who may define it as it suits their own interests. Under our system, as it exists today, any temporary majority may demand from a minority whatever resources and efforts they deem fit and the minority is expected to respond with nothing other than cheerful obedience.

  "There is a word for such a system in our own history – and in the history of the world – where an arbitrary power is permitted to levy – without any countervailing contribution of value – whatever it demands from a despised population who is given no election in the matter. I hesitate to use the word because it is loaded-down heavy with the weight of the past yet today, as on many other recent days, it seems to me that no other word will do. That word, my friends, is slavery.

  "Now, please understand me. I am not saying that all forms of taxation amount to slavery. I am not an anarchist. What I am saying is that any system – and that it what we have today – when a large proportion of the population is permitted by coercive force to wring their bread from the sweat of other mens' faces makes slaves of both sides alike. To transform the government into a Leviathan with the power to dictate the terms by which all must live is to undo the intents of the Founders and to make the United States into the greatest slave state that the world has ever seen.