Peace: The Forever War

Short Fiction Young Adult Science Fiction Fantasy

The last, final Middle East war was over. Fast. Brutal. Final.

Jerusalem experienced the final solution as all their combined defenses couldn't save it from sinking beneath a new sea of irradiated water.

General Marshall persuaded the President and he cajoled Congress into preserving the site as an International Memorial.

But the secret plans were to test a new energy dome over the site to defend it against any future attacks - fueled by the very radiation that was now in that water it covered.

The war had only just begun, in fact...

Excerpt:

It had been a very fast, very brutal war.

Jerusalem now lay buried beneath waters. All sides had agreed to a permanent truce.

And the United States had agreed to be the caretaker of religious freedom over the grave of the oldest and most contested worshiping area on this planet.

Japan was the final say in the peace accords.

For now, we had time to bind our wounds, to care for our widows and orphans. To settle refugees in their new homes.

Out of the new budget that the United States committed, a dome was to be raised over the city to protect the religious artifacts, with the idea of creating a new open worship area for all faiths.

It was astonishing to find such an agreement once the entire area had sank and become useless to everyone.

And no one believed that for a second.

That's why General Marshall broached the idea to the president of creating an international religious freedom zone. But without any United Nations interference. It would strictly be the United States' responsibility to maintain it.

Of course, the detractors and their lackey press told of "Marshall's Folly." And the billions it would take to fund archaeological work for centuries.

In the military, we saw a different scene. The dome we would raise would not only preserve this area from the elements, but would also allow us to build and test defensive fields while preserving the peace.

Because that water, as filthy and irradiated as it was, was fresh, not saline. It meant that the desert could be made to bloom if its source were protected. The far-thinking strategists of Israel also saw this. They could not, on their own, defend that city and also rebuild it. For all the neighboring countries, it was just as well to have that area sunk such that no one could use it.

And the United States was a perfect patsy to pour their money into their ideals of religious and intellectual freedom as they wished. At least no one else could have that mess, either.

They all, then agreed that the United States could do what they wanted, as long as it would not become a part of any nation, but a protectorate. And unlike Puerto Rico and Guam, it had no remaining citizens. Voting and citizenship was no issue. As far as the world was concerned, they would never be. Like Atlantis...

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