The Enemy

bewildering sensation. But we’ve done our homework.”
    He leaned down and opened a drawer and struggled out with an enormous loose-leaf file. It was at least three inches thick. It thumped down on his desktop. It had a green jacket with a long word stenciled on it in black. He reversed it so I could read it. It said:
Transformation.
    “Your first mistake is that your focus was too close,” he said. “You need to stand back and look at it from our perspective. From above. It’s not just Armored Branch that is going to change. Everyone is going to change. Obviously we’re going to move toward highly mobile integrated units. But it’s a bad mistake to see them as infantry units with a few bells and whistles tacked on. They’re going to be a completely new concept. They’ll be something that has never existed before. Maybe we’ll integrate attack helicopters too, and give the command to the guys in the sky. Maybe we’ll move into electronic warfare and give the command to the guys with the computers.”
    I said nothing.
    He laid his hand on the file, palm down. “My point is that nobody is going to come out of this unscathed. Yes, Armored is going to be professionally devastated. No question about that. But so is the infantry and so is the artillery, and so is transport, and so is logistics support, and so is everyone else, equally, just as much. Maybe more, for some people. Including the military police, probably. Everything is going to change, Major. There will be no stone unturned.”
    I said nothing.
    “This is not about Armored versus the infantry,” he said. “You need to understand that. That’s a vast oversimplification. It’s actually about everyone versus everyone else. There will be no winners, I’m afraid. But equally therefore, there will be no losers. You could choose to think about it that way. Everyone is in the same boat.”
    He took his hand off the file.
    “What’s my second mistake?” I said.
    “I moved you out of Panama,” he said. “Not the Vice-Chief. He knew nothing about it. I selected twenty men personally and put them where I thought I needed them. I spread them around, because in my judgment it was fifty-fifty as to who was going to blink first. The light units, or the heavy units? It was impossible to predict. Once their commanders started thinking, they would all realize they have everything to lose. I sent you to Fort Bird, for instance, because I was a little worried about David Brubaker. He was a very proactive type.”
    “But it was Armored who blinked first,” I said.
    He nodded.
    “Apparently,” he said. “If you say so. It was always going to be a fifty-fifty chance. And I guess I’m a little disappointed. Those were my boys. But I’m not defensive about them. I moved onward and upward. I left them behind. I’m perfectly happy to let the chips fall where they may.”
    “So why did you move Garber?”
    “I didn’t.”
    “So who did?”
    “Who outranks me?”
    “Nobody,” I said.
    “I wish,” he said.
    I said nothing.
    “What does an M16 rifle cost?” he said.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “Not a lot, I guess.”
    “We get them for about four hundred dollars,” he said. “What does an Abrams M1A1 main battle tank cost?”
    “About four million.”
    “So think about the big defense contractors,” he said. “Whose side are
they
on? The light units, or the heavy units?”
    I didn’t answer. I figured the question was rhetorical.
    “Who outranks me?” he asked again.
    “The Secretary of Defense,” I said.
    He nodded. “A nasty little man. A politician. Political parties take campaign contributions. And defense contractors can see the future the same as anyone else.”
    I said nothing.
    “A lot for you to think about,” the Chief of Staff said. He hefted the big Transformation file back into his drawer. Replaced it on his desktop with a slimmer jacket. It was marked:
Argon.
    “You know what argon is?” he asked.
    “It’s an inert gas,” I said. “They use it in fire extinguishers. It spreads a layer low down over a fire and prevents it from taking hold.”
    “That’s why I chose the name. Operation Argon was the plan that moved you people at the end of December.”
    “Why did you use Garber’s signature?”
    “Like you suggested in another context, I wanted to let nature take its course. MP orders signed by the Chief of Staff would have raised a lot of eyebrows. Everyone would have switched to best behavior. Or smelled