GWOT VII - The Third Way
Aug. 13th, 2021 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyGWOT VII - The Third Way
[This document is classified. It may tend to compromise facts that, while known to American national defense agencies, should not be emphasized in such a way as to endanger California's friends around the globe.]
In your study of post-Firecracker world diplomacy, it is very instructive to observe which U.S. States neither rebelled nor cooperated with either the Firecracker War or the genocidal depredations of Homeland.
Alaska
While air bases in Alaska were necessarily very supportive of the trans-Pacific war effort, naval and ground facilities soon proved superfluous as China had no apparent remaining ability to project power. The logistics strain of supporting American forces in China severely damaged Alaska's economy. Entire villages were abandoned. While starvation was narrowly avoided by heroic measures, the Firecracker War won no friends in the North. Increasingly, Alaska drifted into both the economic and the political sphere of Canada. This accelerated after the California maritime blockade of Seattle and the formation of the Washington Trust Territory.
Homeland's first survey team returned to the Lower 48 less than sixty hours after landing. Their outlined program was totally unacceptable to both the Alaskan state government and the Army garrisons. They were frostily informed that if a second team were sent, it might have a dreadful aviation accident.
The Alaska Pipeline oil continued to flow for as long as the American Navy could protect that flow, but much of it had to be refined in captured Chinese facilities after the mid-Resistance destruction of the Richmond, CA refinery, and later the denial of all other West Coast refineries to the United States.
Hawaii
The Firecracker War alarmed Hawaii as it would be the most obvious target of Chinese retaliation. In the first three weeks of the War, the Aegis Ashore system stopped several incoming cruise missiles. The U.S. Navy remained popular for quite some time and the logistics support for the China invasion flowed freely through the Islands. As with Alaska, the economic strain was considerable - but unlike Alaska, the corresponding loss of tourism was a positive rather than a negative factor.
The Homeland proposals were extremely attractive to a faction of the state government. The population they selected for separation, however, was the native peoples of Hawaii. This posed certain problems, most notably that "Homeward Bound" was not memetically viable. Also, the Hawaiian islands are small and there were no remote areas really suited to the removals of large numbers of persons. These issues were being worked on - Johnston Atoll was one of several sites proposed - when word of the plans 'leaked' at the same time that Homeland separation operations in California, Oregon and several other mainland states became well known, at least as rumor.
In three days of subdued, almost casual street fighting, the so-called "Aloha War" or "Mahalo Operation" overturned the state government. The victorious native Hawaiians reaffirmed their loyalty to the United States and the United States Navy, but invoked their rights as native peoples. There was in fact a population separation, but not the one that had been planned. A number of Hawaii politicians and businesspeople (some of Japanese descent, some haole) enlisted in the US Army Special Troops and rather suddenly traveled to China, preferring this to the other alternative. Homeland found itself remarkably indifferent to which population removed which, so long as the US Navy had a support base and public loyalty to America was shouted from the rooftops.
When California rebelled and made it stick, the Hawaiian Islands found themselves the center of a pinched logistics pipe. Initial belief that they were unaffected was shattered when California Naval Militia submarines started a naval and anti-aircraft campaign. Soon, limited USN assets were tied up creating a safe bastion within which USA aircraft could land and refuel on their way to and from China. Again, Aegis Ashore proved extremely useful - and the Californians strangely reluctant to attack the anti ballistic missile capable system. Also, much logistical support - particularly food - started being provided _from_ China to Hawaii.
FInally, the US Navy - under intense pressure - found itself using Hawaii as a transit and passage base rather than a secure naval facility. Constant problems with sabotage and an unreliable worker population made it wiser for ships to moor offshore. No naval planner could quite forget the lessons of Pearl Harbor, especially after they were rubbed in by a near-miss where a Calfiornia LIDES nearly sank an American cruiser in the only channel.
Idaho
Homeland never got much traction in Idaho. The various minority populations (ranchers, white trash, racial separatists, etc.) already hated each other to the point of casual sniping, and the state government balked at starting a separation process they then could not stop. The withdrawal of Federal support for services hit rural, poor states hardest. It was all Idaho could do at first to keep the roads open through the first winter's storms, especially as those roads were not of military use either during the Firecracker or during the Resistance.
Those few members of Homeland who were resistant to her goals, but not quite to the point of actionable treason, found themselves transferred to one of the two Idaho offices - with Sandpoint considered by far the worst. What they ended up doing was _recruiting_ for Homeland, particularly white separatists who were willing to fan their racial hatreds into genocide. This provided another reason for Homeland to avoid conducting any operations in Idaho - not wanting to put their own families at risk.
It is of particular note that since the success of the Resistance campaign, Idaho has descended into what can only be called 'bloody madness.' A campaign of bizarre targeted assassinations is widely blamed on the Californian Bear Force, and in turn has led to the general disintegration of what little social stability remained in the state. Heavily armed potato farmers and their paid-in-food mercenaries in turn pay their Federal taxes in the state's only remaining monocrop.
[This document is classified. It may tend to compromise facts that, while known to American national defense agencies, should not be emphasized in such a way as to endanger California's friends around the globe.]
In your study of post-Firecracker world diplomacy, it is very instructive to observe which U.S. States neither rebelled nor cooperated with either the Firecracker War or the genocidal depredations of Homeland.
Alaska
While air bases in Alaska were necessarily very supportive of the trans-Pacific war effort, naval and ground facilities soon proved superfluous as China had no apparent remaining ability to project power. The logistics strain of supporting American forces in China severely damaged Alaska's economy. Entire villages were abandoned. While starvation was narrowly avoided by heroic measures, the Firecracker War won no friends in the North. Increasingly, Alaska drifted into both the economic and the political sphere of Canada. This accelerated after the California maritime blockade of Seattle and the formation of the Washington Trust Territory.
Homeland's first survey team returned to the Lower 48 less than sixty hours after landing. Their outlined program was totally unacceptable to both the Alaskan state government and the Army garrisons. They were frostily informed that if a second team were sent, it might have a dreadful aviation accident.
The Alaska Pipeline oil continued to flow for as long as the American Navy could protect that flow, but much of it had to be refined in captured Chinese facilities after the mid-Resistance destruction of the Richmond, CA refinery, and later the denial of all other West Coast refineries to the United States.
Hawaii
The Firecracker War alarmed Hawaii as it would be the most obvious target of Chinese retaliation. In the first three weeks of the War, the Aegis Ashore system stopped several incoming cruise missiles. The U.S. Navy remained popular for quite some time and the logistics support for the China invasion flowed freely through the Islands. As with Alaska, the economic strain was considerable - but unlike Alaska, the corresponding loss of tourism was a positive rather than a negative factor.
The Homeland proposals were extremely attractive to a faction of the state government. The population they selected for separation, however, was the native peoples of Hawaii. This posed certain problems, most notably that "Homeward Bound" was not memetically viable. Also, the Hawaiian islands are small and there were no remote areas really suited to the removals of large numbers of persons. These issues were being worked on - Johnston Atoll was one of several sites proposed - when word of the plans 'leaked' at the same time that Homeland separation operations in California, Oregon and several other mainland states became well known, at least as rumor.
In three days of subdued, almost casual street fighting, the so-called "Aloha War" or "Mahalo Operation" overturned the state government. The victorious native Hawaiians reaffirmed their loyalty to the United States and the United States Navy, but invoked their rights as native peoples. There was in fact a population separation, but not the one that had been planned. A number of Hawaii politicians and businesspeople (some of Japanese descent, some haole) enlisted in the US Army Special Troops and rather suddenly traveled to China, preferring this to the other alternative. Homeland found itself remarkably indifferent to which population removed which, so long as the US Navy had a support base and public loyalty to America was shouted from the rooftops.
When California rebelled and made it stick, the Hawaiian Islands found themselves the center of a pinched logistics pipe. Initial belief that they were unaffected was shattered when California Naval Militia submarines started a naval and anti-aircraft campaign. Soon, limited USN assets were tied up creating a safe bastion within which USA aircraft could land and refuel on their way to and from China. Again, Aegis Ashore proved extremely useful - and the Californians strangely reluctant to attack the anti ballistic missile capable system. Also, much logistical support - particularly food - started being provided _from_ China to Hawaii.
FInally, the US Navy - under intense pressure - found itself using Hawaii as a transit and passage base rather than a secure naval facility. Constant problems with sabotage and an unreliable worker population made it wiser for ships to moor offshore. No naval planner could quite forget the lessons of Pearl Harbor, especially after they were rubbed in by a near-miss where a Calfiornia LIDES nearly sank an American cruiser in the only channel.
Idaho
Homeland never got much traction in Idaho. The various minority populations (ranchers, white trash, racial separatists, etc.) already hated each other to the point of casual sniping, and the state government balked at starting a separation process they then could not stop. The withdrawal of Federal support for services hit rural, poor states hardest. It was all Idaho could do at first to keep the roads open through the first winter's storms, especially as those roads were not of military use either during the Firecracker or during the Resistance.
Those few members of Homeland who were resistant to her goals, but not quite to the point of actionable treason, found themselves transferred to one of the two Idaho offices - with Sandpoint considered by far the worst. What they ended up doing was _recruiting_ for Homeland, particularly white separatists who were willing to fan their racial hatreds into genocide. This provided another reason for Homeland to avoid conducting any operations in Idaho - not wanting to put their own families at risk.
It is of particular note that since the success of the Resistance campaign, Idaho has descended into what can only be called 'bloody madness.' A campaign of bizarre targeted assassinations is widely blamed on the Californian Bear Force, and in turn has led to the general disintegration of what little social stability remained in the state. Heavily armed potato farmers and their paid-in-food mercenaries in turn pay their Federal taxes in the state's only remaining monocrop.
