The New York Times
Opinion
How the hell did we survive the war?
By: Kwame Johansson, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist.
July 13th, 2125
I still remember it like yesterday, that day when President Camille Hirabayashi announced to the Press Corps about the declaration of war her office received from the People's Republic of China, it felt that a ball dropped somewhere at 24 West 13th Avenue that day, and when it dropped, everyone in the Palace exploded in a frenzy of questions over to the President.
Is the declaration of war caused by the RIMPAC exercises.
Is the declaration of war caused by India's repeated attempts to secure the Brahmaputra river valley. A country which, incidentally, is allied with the NAU.
Is the declaration of war caused by ASEAN's joint condemnation on the Chinese operations at Northern Myanmar and Laos against the Republican Terrorists.
In truth, this was all a factor into China's declaration of war against the NAU and her allies, the failing war effort in Southeast Asia, the concentrated push by India to pressure the Chinese government, and the latest exercises in Hawaii, which involves
defense against Ballistic Missiles as It's main focus. All of this was a factor, and all of this was what drove Premier Jia Peng to issue the declaration of war.
This isn't the issue though, even a person who only has surface level knowledge of Asia Pacific politics knows that this is a long time coming. The question though, is how in the world did the NAU survived, while China doesn't.
Firstly, yes, it is true. The NAU does have an extensive anti ballistic missile system network. It is a system that has been deployed since the mid to late 2080s and has been improved upon multiple times. It features projectile carrying satellites, missile cruisers stationed in Japan and Taiwan, and mobile and fixed site installations on the American West Coast.
(A North American 'Space Defender' Satellite installation, it carries around 500 AIM-200LRI Anti Ballistic Missile Projectiles, Picture obtained from the Department of Defense Archives, Circa 2099)
(Image taken of a North American 'Amarillo Class' Missile Destroyer firing It's main gun, Picture obtained from the North American Navy Archives, 2095)
But, as per recently declassified archival records from not only the Department of Defense, and also from Memos of the Hirabayashi administration shows, these overlapping defense systems are never really meant to withstand a full on barrage from the full might of the Chinese Nuclear Arsenal. It is designed,
per policy memos from the DOD indicates, to withstand a barrage of roughly 500-1000 Missiles headed into the direction of mainland North America. And during the first couple months of the war, as is very well known, the Chinese fired all of It's arsenal, some 13.000 Nuclear Warheads of varying sizes, into the NAU and It's allies.
So, as the title of this article suggests. How the hell did we survive the war?
Luck, and focus. There is no other feasible explanation as to how the NAU suffered so little during the course of the war, the missile defense system
performed much better than even the most optimistic expectations of the DOD, only allowing a grand total of 10 North American Cities to be destroyed or nearly destroyed. Names in which we are all familiar with.
It might not be the most pleasing answer to hear, but per archived memos,
multiple accounts of the missile system working throughout the war, and
retrospective review of the missile system conducted by the DOD, there isn't any other way to explain how North America Survived, when the European Federation joined the war 3 months after,
most of the missiles fired by the Chinese and Russians headed into their way, sparing North America from the ravages and near destruction Europe suffered.
The important question to ask now though, is how do we rebuild? and what should we do now that the war is over, and all of North America's geopolitical rivals gone? that is a question that is being in the process of being answered, and we can only hope that we wouldn't make the same decisions that lead us into the fateful day in 24 West 13th Avenue. The day the ball dropped for all of us in the Press Corps.