tri·um·vi·rate
Roman History . the office or magistracy of a triumvir.
a government of three officers or magistrates functioning jointly.
a coalition of three magistrates or rulers for joint administration.
any association of three in office or authority.
any group or set of three.
The following script is reprinted with the permission of the Showtime mini-series TRIUMVIATE
[SCENE: Oval Office of the President of The United States. The room is crowded with well dressed civilians and military officers. It is clear that a meeting is breaking up and the presidential audience is moving towards the exit, talking to one another very seriously with sober faces in low voices. The president speaks..]
President: General Conway and Director McKenna - I need to speak in private with you gentlemen.
[Conway and McKenna pass their briefcases to their respective aides, who are the last to disappear out to the hallway. The door is closed by an SS agent. The three men are alone.]
President: I want you to know this meeting is not recorded. Please feel free to speak your minds.
McKenna: [He is a handsome 50 something man with silver grey hair with intense blue eyes, trim white beard and very fit in appearance. McKenna wears an expensive dark blue suit with a white shirt and red tie.]
I assume this conference concerns the recent events in Boston and the presidential address to the nation in a few hours...
President: [Dressed in a black suit with black and white shirt. He is white youngish man in his early 40s with dark short black hair cut very short. The president's eyes are dark brown and send a message of power, intelligence and action to the world.
The president steps out from behind his desk and pulls together three chairs in a circle. This indicates he sees the other two men as his equals in power. He motions by hand signals they are to join him in the ring of power. McKenna immediately takes a seat, unbuttons his suit coat and assumes a relaxed pose, as if the implied power just granted by the most powerful man in the world is his due. Conway way remains standing, but finally sits down in the indicted seat after a second hand signal from the president. The Five Star General of Armies perches on the edge of the chair at attention in he pose of soldier obeying an order he doesn't like from a superior officer. The body language of Conway is that he would rather be anywhere except in this room.]
President: General Conway, you may relax.
Conway: I am.
McKenna: This is relaxed for General Conway in the company of his superior officer, Mr. President. He means to sent a message that he is the servant to the authority of the presidency.
[Conway turns an ugly Greco-Roman poker face with scars to look at McKenna with the same lack of passion an American eagle who look down at its prey.]
McKenna: I read your book, general - “A Soldier Reports” - the chapter on “The Supremacy of The Presidency” was quite interesting and informative.
Conway: [A little angry] I support my president and his policies. To do otherwise would lead the nation down the path taken by Chile in 1973. But perhaps your agents in the Pentagon tell you a different story?
McKenna: I have no agents in the Pentagon. However, I do believe I discovered one of your Military Intelligence officers working uncover at SS HQ here in Washington, D.C. just a few days ago. I sent him back to the Pentagon with a note.
Conway: I don't know what you're talking about! Gentlemen do spy on other gentlemen...
President: Please! What's next between you two? A challenge to a duel? I did not call us together so that the two most senior officers in my government could act like two high school boys trading insults leading up to a fist fight.
Conway: I would like to apologize for my remarks, Director McKenna.
McKenna: No apology was needed, general. I've followed your career for years. Please consider me the first in line of your admirers - you are a military genius. I considered your remarks to be nothing more than an honest exchange of views. I will say this: neither one of us are aware of what our subordinates are up to at all times – I have a very zealous Deputy, Agent Smith, who sometimes goes a bridge too far, I will talk to him.
Conway: Likewise I will have chat with Sullivan, Commanding General of my Intelligence and Security Command...I knew nothing before this meeting concerning Pentagon agents working inside the Secret Service.
President: There! Problem solved! Let's move on...General, are your forces ready to invade Pakistan?
Conway: My special ops teams are posed inside Pakistan to take out the nuclear weapons. I only need the “go” from you.
President: Granted! What about the main ground, sea and air attack?
Conway: The plan is to attack from three directions in less than a month: The main land invasion for NATO will come out of the Khyber Pass from Afghanistan by strong armored forces with the First Armored Division as the tip of the spear. They are equipped with the recently upgraded M-1 main battle tank that's more than a match for anything the Paks than throw against it.
The second assault will come from India, which has recently joined NATO. We expect our Indian allies will face the most active defense from the Paks, because the flower of the Pakistani military was been long deployed against their traditional enemy – India.
The third assault will be launched by elements of the Marine Corps Persian Gulf Task Force, who will seize Pakistan's outlets on the Indian Ocean and the major city of Karachi...All these land campaigns supported by considerable NATO air and naval forces.
President: I see...an encirclement...How long can the Pakistani main resistance last?
Conway: Less than a month...Pakistan is a dirt poor third world country with a second class military establishment that couldn't stand up against India without considerable outside help....The problem is not getting into the country and seizing control of the machinery of government – it is dealing with the inevitable insurrection that happens in all occupied Islamic countries.
President: How would you stop this revolt?
Conway: By doing what worked in the occupation of defeated Germany, Italy and Japan after World War II – the iron fist! I would need military governors and an army of occupation for years in Pakistan, maybe decades...I wouldn't need civilians in the government and the Media looking over by shoulder...
President: This will be The Third World War in which the America will use the same methods that led to victory in the Second World War.
Conway: This is the reality of post 9/11...whether we in the West want to admit it or not, but really it's just one more chapter in the bloody war begun by Islam against the world in the seventh century A.D. This conflict can only be won by the conquest of the Islamic world.
McKenna: [to the president] I agree with the general. I cannot secure the Homeland until the radical Mosques -which is just about all of then – are shutdown. Otherwise the Jihadists will have a base to convert recruits like the missing Harold Washington. To my mind it makes no sense to kill Islamists in Pakistan while allowing them free run of this country doing assassinations and bombings at will. In order to rid a home of rats, those inside and outside of it must killed.
President: The three of us are on the same page and in complete agreement on this issue.
Conway: I need a declaration of war.
President: Early next week you will have it – Congress will declare war on Islamic terrorism.
Conway: If I have the full backing of the nation, America can win World War III.
McKenna: Mr. President, I will need your authorization to begin mass arrests and deportation of American Muslims.
President: We have to arrest ALL Muslims in the USA? There are six or seven million of them.
McKenna: ...who all believe in the 164 Jihad verses in the KORAN called the Muslims to make war on non-Muslims. Yes, any Muslim man, woman or child represents a danger threat to the security of the Homeland.
President: Where would you put that many people?
McKenna: I have numerous FEMA camps available all over the country with ample bed space for six million Muslims, if there are really that many in the USA.
President: How would you arrest and transport massive numbers of Muslims to the camps?
McKenna: I have staffed that problem, and I'm told the FEMA emergency relocation plans for natural disasters will work well...with a few modifications...
Conway: I can't spare any troops for a domestic mission – I will need all my resources to include the National Guard and the Reserves for overseas.
McKenna: My SS can accomplish the mission with our own resources. We have trained and planned for an event like this one.
President: What about public reaction?
McKenna: There will be little. I do not plan to allow the Media access to the round up.
President: Good point – When Congress declares war tomorrow, I will impose censorship. I recall that during WW II nothing was said about the imprisonment of the Japanese, German and Italian civilians arrested by the government.
Conway: What about the Internet? The bloggers will be on this story.
McKenna: The president has the “Internet Kill Switch”
President: Naturally the Internet needs to be censored...But how?
McKenna: My SS has the software ready to roll. This was provided by our friends in the Chinese government. Of course, we need the 'Net for essential commerical and governmental functions, but not for message board chat, blogs and news websites.
Conway: You can do that next week, McKenna? As a military man I'm quite impressed with your preparations for this event.
[Conway looks intently at McKenna with his expressionless face as if to discover something about the man.]
McKenna: Thank you...Like the Pentagon, Homeland Security under my Secret Service has plans and training for the management of just about any crisis.
Conway: Still and all...[the general stops in mid sentence]
President: Speak freely, General Conway, you are with supporters.
Conway: ...something foolish came into my mind, “Invasion From Mars” - it was a comedy sci-fi movie about the Invasion of the USA by ruthless - but funny – Aliens.
[The trio laugh. It was a great tension breaker.]
President: The best scene for me was when the actor-president gets vaporized by the Aliens when he attempts peace talks.
[The men laugh some more]
McKenna: I think that scene was allegory for Obama's attempt to have peace talks with the Islamists.
Conway: Speaking of former President Obama – what happened to him and his immediate family? One hears nothing in the Media.
McKenna: At his own request, the former president and his family are in the custody of the Secret Service at a classified location. The family is happy and their privacy is well protected.
Conway: Where? I would like to say hello to the former president.
[Again the intense "eagle look" at McKenna]
President: On my instructions, McKenna will tell you no more.
Conway: I see...
McKenna: The former president is a very private man...
Conway: I'll say. No one is really sure where he came from before he became president, or where he went to after leaving office in disgrace.
President: Except for the “Silent Service” and myself...
Conway: Thank you gentlemen for clearing up the mystery. I am satisfied that President Obama is in a better place.
[The obvious sarcasm is missed by McKenna]
President: Let's wrap up this meeting. In two hours I will brief the public on the Boston killings and the tie to Islamists in Pakistan. I will contend that the Pakstani government willingly and knowingly gave aid to these terrorists, as in the past they did to Osama Bin Laden. I will announce these actions by Pakistan are tantamount to a declaration of war against USA and her NATO allies. Thus in my role of CIC, I will acknowledge that the U.S. Military has just launched air strikes and special forces attacks on my orders against Pakistan in defense of the Homeland. I will end with telling of my intention to ask Congress on Monday for a declaration of war against Global Islamic Terrorism.
[McKenna and Conway rise to their feet. The two soldiers have their marching orders. The Rubicon has been crossed. They both approach the president and shake hands with him. The scene fades out with classical music]
JOIN THE REVOLUTION AT CHECKMATE
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