THE LIGHT OF DAY

The crashing of an airliner by a foreigner into an American landmark, the removal of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent take over of Iraq by Iran, collusion between China and India; allies of the new United Islamic Republic, an UIR Ebola bio-war attack against America, and the subsequent declaration of martial law by the President of the United States; a Vice-President thrust into office not just by the death of the man who chose him, but by the decapitation of Congress itself.

All written in 1996.

The biggest difference in our post 9-11 reality is that George W. Bush is no Jack Ryan, and even Thomas H. Clancy Jr. couldn't have predicted that.

I didn't finish "Executive Orders" when it came out, but someone else sure did. Racing through the final chapters now, it's hard to see how they didn't pin 9-11 on Clancy instead of Osama when the first tower was struck.

The "willing suspension of disbelief" is what's necessary to enjoy fiction, but what we may be faced now is what someone might actually do under those very circumstances.

Someone obviously thought that taking out Saddam and taking over Iraq before Iran did was a good idea, and they were banking on our unwillingness to suspend our belief in the Presidency.

Maybe, but it was done the way a villian would, and Americans are beginning to suffer for the actions of their failed leader as surely as the people of Iran ended up doing in Clancy's scenario.

In "Red Storm Rising", Tom Clancy may have single-handedly talked the Soviets out of World War III with his brutal description of what would happen to them if they tried anything. It might work on the hidden leaders of Iran. Unfortunately, the Bush Doctrine appears to have been formulated without the diplomacy and honesty that are at the heart of the Ryan Doctrine.

Inserting one name for another is not enough.

Ray Bradbury is still angry at Michael Moore for swiping one of his more famous titles. Hopefully, one of my favorite authors won't mind my referencing his chapter when the tide turns for this post. It's dark-thirty in America, and we have been kept sleeping by those who cannot afford to have Americans see their strategy in the light of day.

As for Mr. Clancy; a patriot with game, he will have an honored place in a Sterling Administration. I hope he will accept it.

My Name is Michael Sterling, and I approved this page.