March 17, 1958 - 10:00 hrs [UTC-5]
Layarteb City, New York
Fortress of Comhghall
(40° 41' 28" N, 74° 0' 58" W)
President Baltz entered his office shortly before 10:00 hours and while various staffers milled about, he headed right to the coffee machine, poured himself a heaping cup, mixing in two cubes of sugar, and continued to stir it even after he sat down behind his desk. At precisely 10:00 hours, he checked his watch and spoke up, "All right, good morning, thank you for coming, please let's get down to business. I'd like to hear from Defense first. What is our progress on Lemnos?"
"Well Mister President," the Secretary of Defense began, "army units successfully captured Thanos yesterday, which puts them less than two and a half miles from Myrina, where we believe the highest concentration of insurgent forces in Western Lemnos reside. Unfortunately, the Marines are not as close. They're having a hell of a time in Kaspakas. The terrain there, while coastal, supports a large hill to the immediate south. They've come under several ambushes and the enemy has had the high ground for some time."
"How long are we estimating until Myrina falls and our forces can push eastward?"
"It could be another month Mister President, it's hard to say. Until the Marines are ready though, the army units will remain in Thanos and resupply themselves."
"How have casualties been?"
"Mister President, more or less in line with our projections; we've lost men but not nearly as much as our enemy has. We benefit from having armored vehicles. Almost all vehicle losses have been to the RPG-2 anti-tank rocket, which the Soviets have supplied the insurgents with while a large portion of the infantry losses has been due to snipers or ambushes."
"All right then let's switch over to State. How are our allies holding up?"
"Mister President," began the Secretary of State, "our allies remain strong. The Hirgizstanians and the North Germanians remain committed to the end. The Eurasians are still taking their own stance of limited involvement but they have not hindered us whatsoever. They continue to monitor the Soviets in the Black Sea and they pass on vital information about Soviet vessels and aircraft transiting down into the Aegean. Our Lemnosian allies remain strong but I'm afraid to admit sir, they aren't appearing to be in this for the long run."
"What do you mean?"
"Well sir, right now they are fine but when this is over, they're going to want to come down with a heavy hand against the insurgents and anyone who sympathized with them. This won't solve anything - in fact it will positively lead to a repeat."
"All right, correct me then if I am wrong. The initial phase of operations will concentrate on the island of Lemnos and dislodging the immediate threat. Then we're going to move into an inter-phase where we'll conduct reconnaissance operations against Agios Efstratios, am I still on track?" Heads nodded in approval, "Our last phase of combat will be a major push against rebel strongholds on the island. Once that is over we'll conduct mop-up and peacekeeping operations and then our mission is over, correct?"
"Yes sir, that is as far as our operational tempo goes. We have a long-term plan for peacekeeping, if you recall we discussed it on February 28. However, the Lemnosian government is giving us serious pushback."
"That's not how this works," President Baltz said with a slight laugh, "Make them understand that our final phase is non-negotiable or else we pull our forces out this moment, and with us comes the entire alliance. Make it abundantly clear to your counterparts there. If they still don't get it, I will make a phone call. Prime Minister Argyris would be toeing a very fine line if he were to continue upon that course."
"Yes sir," the Secretary of State answered and that left an uneasy silence in the air until President Baltz continued, calling on the Secretary of State to give any new information from Kiev. There was little to be had, just the usual condemnations and the fact that more shipping was being tracked moving through the straits into the Aegean. Bombers were flying regular probe missions but they weren't getting within the exclusion zone around Lemnos and thus they could not be engaged whatsoever. Despite the fervency for anti-communism, no one wanted to be the one to fire the first shots in a major world war and thus, the Soviets were allowed to fly their obvious provocation flights and the MF-MA forces were allowed to continue to bomb insurgents.