time, the UN was trying to keep up with the spreading chaos by inserting
peacekeepers and taking steps to ensure the delivery of humanitarian
relief as the dreaded Russian winter loomed near.
In Washington, the President had agreed to honor the UN Secretary
General’s request and ordered MEU-25 and CBG-14 into the Black Sea, once
it became certain that Turkey was not going to permit foreign military
forces to be based on their soil.
On paper, Operation Sustain Hope seemed no more outlandish a proposal
than had Operation Restore Hope, the abortive and expensive Marine
operation–again at the UN’s behest–in Somalia in 1992 to 1994. The
National Command Authority had been specific in its directive: Under no
circumstances would U.S. involve themselves in the fighting between the
Red and Blue Russian factions. The Marines would go ashore at Poti only
after a UN Crisis Assessment Team could demonstrate that both the Reds
and the Blues were out of the picture in Georgia, leaving the way clear
for the Georgian Freedom Party to cooperate with the UN mission. If and
when the CAT gave the go-ahead, Marines would start going ashore,
securing port and airfield facilities in and around Poti so that relief
supplies could begin arriving by ship and plane.
Meanwhile, the Jefferson battle group’s aircraft would impose a
UN-dictated no-fly zone over western Georgia. By stopping all air
traffic within a triangle marked out by the cities of Batumi and Sukhumi
on the coast, and Kutasisi, about fifty miles inland from Poti, a
fragile peace might be eked out among the warring tribes and factions;
if it worked in western Georgia, the UN sanctions would be extended,
taking in all of Georgia and the neighboring states of Armenia and
Azerbaijan as well. That region was still a running sore in this part of
the world, and a successfully enforced UN-mandated peace there would go
a long way toward legitimizing the notion of a United Nations with
teeth.
The UN also hoped to use a strong military presence to defuse other
problems in the area as well. Turkey had threatened more than once to
invade former Soviet Armenia in order to quell the restlessness of its
own Armenian population and the threat of a single Armenian state carved
from both sides of the border; Iran, too, was a regional wild card, with
troops poised on the Iranian-Azerbaijani border threatening to intervene
in that country as well.
It was enough to give anyone one hell of a headache.
“Have there been any threats to Twenty-five?” Tombstone asked Penhall.
“No direct threats,” the lieutenant replied. “A number of radar sites
all along the coast have been keeping tabs on them, of course, but no
weapons radar signatures, and nothing that could be interpreted as a
hostile move. Yet.”
That final word was offered as an afterthought, and Tombstone nodded
understanding. No one in this part of the world really wanted them here
in these waters, and all parties concerned would be very glad to see the
Americans leave.
And that goes for me, too, Tombstone thought. He pointed to a cluster of
yellow symbols over the Black Sea, south of Kerch and the straits
leading to the Sea of Azov. “And who are those guys?”
“They’ve been IDED as another military flight out of Krasnodar,” Penhall
said. “Reinforcements for Sevastopol, I expect.”
“I think,” Tombstone said slowly, “that the Crimea is going to sink if
they pile anything more in there.”
Penhall smiled. “What was it the Russian general said about Stalingrad,
sir, back in World War II? That it was one big prison camp?”
“I’m not sure the Russians said that,” Tombstone replied, “but I take
your point.”
The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine was what made the American
incursion into the Black Sea particularly dangerous. More so than even
the civil war between Blues and Reds, the Russo-Ukrainian War carried
with it the seeds of a general conflict throughout this part of the
world, one that might well spill over into both Europe and the Middle
East.
It had, in fact, all of the makings of a new world war.
“Top Hat, Top Hat,” a radio voice called from a nearby speaker, carrying