Shortly Before the Election

The President sat alone in the Oval Office. He’d been reading some routine reports, Congressional Bills, and most importantly the latest poll numbers.

His reelection was all but assured with less than a week to go in the campaign.

He’d done it his way. Even his closest election advisors did not fully comprehend how he’d done it.

The President knew the power of image and he knew what a powerful motive revenge can be. Vengeance transcended rational thought. And that was good.

All he’d had to do was keep the image in the public mind of that terrible day when America was ruthlessly attacked.

The brilliant stroke had been to start a conventional war. America had suffered losses, but they paled in comparison to the losses of the country he’d invaded. It did not matter that most of those losses had been civilian casualties.

The public wanted vengeance and he’d given it to them. There were many people who did not care to distinguish between guilty or innocent. The public demanded verisimilitude to the evil ones who had attacked America. The victims wore the same dress and appeared to have the same religion as the terrorists. That was good enough.

He’d lost everyone who had seriously and soberly assessed the war as a war that could not be won. Even those in his own party who had seriously assessed the war had switched to the opposition side.

That did not matter. They had no image or idea to sway the public imagination from their extreme desire for vengeance.

In fact, the opposition had played into his hands. They had talked about the reality on the ground instead of playing to the vagaries of the mind.

He’d start the next phase of the war after the election—peace with honor.