[War] "US/UK The special relationship reborn"

[Pat B]

"US/UK The special relationship reborn"

PM Dennis Brandt
United Kingdom
Pres. John Williams
United States

Closing the briefing book on the president Dennis leaned back. "We
arrive in 2 hours?"

"Yes sir."  The Royal Air Force corporal who had the job as his
batsman
for this summit walked out to make sure his jacket was ready for the
arrival ceremony.

As he sipped at the cup of coffee Dennis looked over Washington DC and
Andrews Air Force Base.

On the ground, POTUS stood in the early-March slight chill of Northern
Virginia, quietly observing as the pieces came together. As a simple
Head of Government, the newest occupant of Number 10 Downing Street
didn't merit all that much ceremony, but there was a limited degree
that would occur on the tarmac here; Then, they'd all board Marine One
and head out to Camp David, where Kayleigh and the dogs already were,
joined by the rest of the National Security Team and their spouses and
kids.

It had been the one thing the national media had yet to really comment
on; POTUS had a more collective style of governing than his
predecessors. In the end, all decisions were his, of course, but his
Cabinet Secretaries had a clear voice in the discussions, and a clear
vote. PR, on both good and bad things, was more often handled from the
cabinet departments and the agencies these days, less than from the
White House.

More relevant to today, though, was the briefing book on his PDA; As
he read it, he scribbled notes in the margins with his stylus; the
Situation Room would pick up on these, particularly the queries for
more data, and send those queries off to the intelligence community.

Oh, and the donkey plushie that awaited the PM in Marine One. That had
been Alexander's idea, piped up as the Williams and Abbot males went
out one day to look for baby stuff, because Uncle Ioannes and those
like him had to deal with such stubborn people.

But back to reality. A tap on his PDA brought up a secure datalink to
the Andrews radar screens; RAF One was entering the traffic pattern.

And so, from the end of the red carpet, POTUS pulled out his
binoculars and locked onto the aircraft.

RAF one landed and the stairs were set in to place.  Dennis and Angela
stepped out and waved to the waiting reporters before walking down the
stairway.  Stopping at the honor guard he returned the salute then
walked down to where President Williams waited.

As RAF One landed, the President's eyes followed the aircraft down the
runway.

Then, as the stairs went up to the door and connected with a
whirclunk, he watched as the door opened.

After his British counterpart reviewed the honor guard, he held his
hand out with a smile as the PM and his wife approached.

"Mr. Prime Minister, Mrs. Brandt, welcome to America. First time on
this side of the Atlantic?" he asked.

"First in many years Mr President." Angela smiled, Dennis spoke up,
"First time in DC, Did spend time at Camp Lejune as an RM.  But that
was training with the Marines."

That brought a chuckle. "Ahh, Camp Lejeune is no introduction to much
of anywhere except a swamp." The Marine who was the football carrier
glared (albeit playfully) at him; POTUS in return beamed innocently.

Later, after the National Anthems and the usual arrival ceremony
speechifying, POTUS escorted the Brits over to Marine One, handing out
helmets.

"Safety first, folks," the crew chief announced cheerfully.

Williams just smiled at that, boarding last; as the rotors spun up, he
checked the comm circuits on the intercom before cutting the headset
to listen to the radio frequencies.

After taking his seat and strapped in, Dennis' blackberry vibrated.
Checking it quickly as
Marine one was airborne it was from Francis who said he'd meet him at
Camp David.

As the chopper flew over the Maryland coastal plains and into the
Catoctin foothills, the President looked out the windows for a while,
eyes seeming to scan the landscape below.

Dennis put his PDA back then looked over at the landscape, it was
rather
lush out here, reminded him of back home in a way.  Then, the
helicopter
began to descend in to Camp David.

At that point, POTUS focused his gaze. The Marine in dress blues that
met him wherever the helicopter landed (even in the weirdest places;
Bill Clinton's recounting of being met by a Marine in Class A's on the
very edge of the Grand Canyon came to mind); the other Marines,
members of the NSF Thurmont security force, were in combat gear and
positiooned to watch outward from the helipad, Secret Service backing
them up (and, no doubt, watching them, as well). The National Security
Team was here, inclduing Admiral Giambastiani, to greet the British
PM. Alexander and Timotheos could be spotted from the windows of
Aspen, as could Akela and Gizmo.

Clunk. And Marine One gently touched the tarmac, the doors opened, and
the steps came down.

As he stepped off the aircraft and returned the salutes, he looked
back to Brandt.

"Welcome to Camp David."

"A pleasure to be here sir."  Dennis said as they walked down the
pathway.

After the usual greetings and introductions to the National Security
team, the group gathered with the President and the PM on a back
porch, watching Alex and Tim chase and get chased by the dogs.

"So, where should we begin?" Williams asked. Piper was showing his
multitasking; paying attention to his kids and the dogs on the one
hand, and observing the meeting on the other. That is, until Kay
appeared outside to supervise the dogs and the kids.

Dennis nodded, "Research. We need to get in to the 21st century. Our
manufacturing is not keeping up with the times."

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Mr. Prime Minister," Piper noted
with a smile. "However, the fact is that there's no good idea on how
to -do- that."

POTUS just watched, a smile on his face.

"What my shepherd comrade is trying to say, sir," Secretary of State
Hill noted, grinning, "is that there's no good way to compete against
cheap labor without indulging in slavery. Particularly in heavy
industry, unless you were to scrap workplace safety laws,
environmental regs, and the minimum wage, it's not likely we could
even try to compete. After all, all the tax incentives in the world
won't compensate enough for the fact that the Asian shipbuilders can
pay their workers pennies."

"True." Dennis nodded, "We will have to beat them with quality.  And
not
just shipbuilding too."

"While that -sounds- nice," Abbot replied skeptically, "do you have
details on precisely how our governments are supposed to actually
encourage industries that have mostly run screaming to Asia to invest
in plants they could quite profitably shut down? Hell, why -should-
they invest the money in new technology?"

Williams broke in at this point. "Hell, there's hardly all that -much-
new technology to offer em that the Asian competition isn't already
using. For cheaper."

"It's not just technology, it could be construction methods, or it
could
even be, making them faster and better quality then the far east, the
first thing is to work on production methods, they haven't changed in
years.... that we can fix."

"So, basic research programs. Okay. Two questions," Piper replied, his
Greek accent showing. "One, how do you keep what we develop from
heading immediately for our competitors and negating our work without
causing free speech or restraint of trade issues? Two, how much money
were you thinking each government would pour in?"

"For what it's worth, this sounds like the sort of project that is
grad student bread and butter," POTUS interjected. "I figure $75M on
the US side should work well enough. But somehow I figure the usual
research grant system isn't going to work."

"We could use a reward system."   Frances spoke up, "Like for the
first
civillian space craft, first team to produce X is given a reward of a
certian amount, it worked for the space craft.  Accompanied with tax
write offs for research and development."

"Okay, any ideas as to what the initial projects should be and their
reward amounts? And how would you propose to answer Secretary Abbot's
questions regarding keeping what we develop as an Anglo-American
advantage while using an X-Prize structure?" POTUS replied.

"First thing's first, Steelworks.  Our steel production has severely
decreased due to labor shortage, and environmental regulations.  I
know
yours has suffered as well.  Eastern Europe has more lax regulations,
but if we could make one of the x prizes how to make steelworking
cleaner environmentally and another one how to automate as much as
possible, therefor cutting down on the number of workers, and lowering
the cost; while increasing quailty."

"One of the things Peter Diamandis noted to me when we talked a few
years back, during one of the times he came to testify on the Hill,
was that an X Prize system needed specific, clear, definable
objectives. It can't just be 'improve steel production', it needs to
be 'create X which meets Y specifications'.

"That said, for the US portion of the pot for that I'm thinking $10M
USD.

"I get the feeling you have more ideas, too." Williams replied,
tapping notes into his Crackberry as he kept his eyes on Brandt.

"I do, first off we can throw in 10M US dollars as well 20 million is
a
nice round number, first prize can be create a process to increase
automation of steel production by 20% while decreaseing emissions by
5%."

"Okay. Next idea?"

"Next thing is, military matters, mainly a change of firearms,
normally
this would be internal but since you are looking to replace the M-4 it
does lead us with an opportunity to discuss standardizing."

"I was wondering when you'd get back to me on that email," Williams
noted. "50-50 split on costs, same split on sales to third-parties, IP
and TDPs held by joint organization?

"I'm thinking we need replacements for M4 and M16 in all roles. And if
you can, see if others in Europe won't join in. We'll divide the cost
and profit structure accordingly."

"Sounds like a plan." Dennis nodded, "the SA-80 should have been
replaced years ago on our end, and if we can get NATO on board perhaps
there's something else we can discuss.  As strange as this sounds, I'd
like to see what your thoughts are about the Hague treaties allowing
hollow points."

That had Williams blink. "It's there, we deal with it." He
offered. "I'm not sure it's smart for the US to suggest revising those
treaties, and I think even trying to excise -that- article would open
up a Pandora's Box."

"That is why the UK will feel things out with NATO.  See if we can get
some agreement or disagreement on the situation. " Francis spoke
up, "If
police and civillians can use hollow points, why not, the rules of war
were inked in a more civilized time, and need to be looked at, but yes
this could backfire which is why we're going to proceede carefully,
unofficially, we'd like your support, offiicaly we never spoke on
this."

Dennis then checked a mail, "As for the rifles, we should draw up a
list
of specifications for this weapon and see what we need.  And what I
propose is instead of a think tank, we bring in soldiers who are going
to use this weapon to have more input."

"We already do that as part of drawing up the requirements docs,"
Williams noted. "The rest is engineering."

The two men spoke quietly for a second, "Oh... I know we don't do
that,
unfortunately.  We however will be doing such with this purchase."
Dennis shrugged, "Next meeting of the NATO leaders we can pitch the
joint combat rifle plan."

That gets POTUS grinning. "I think that explains the SA-80 right
there." Pause. "Why not have our people at NATO pitch it to their
counterparts this week, then we'll follow up at the next Head of
Government meet?"

"It sounds like a plan Sir..."