Author's Notes

by

MacDonald Reid

About

Jihad: World War in 2036

ISBN: 1-58500-867-0

By 1991, I was getting pretty disgusted with techno-thrillers. Tom Clancy had killed off the entire U.S. government to make Jack Ryan the President. I wasn’t really happy with Larry Bond’s Cauldron, either. I thought I could do better. So, in the summer of 1990, I sat down at my computer and gave it a try.

My basic idea was a major war in the Middle East. My first thought was the Iraqis and Syrians against the Kuwaitis and Saudis. Then, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and my idea went down the tubes. Truth had overtaken fiction, and I hovered near my TV for eight months.

During that time, I developed a lot of what ifs. I asked what if Syria had come in on the side of Iraq? I wondered if Iran would enter the war, and if so on which side? Would their hatred of Iraq overcome their hatred of America? Would the enemy of my enemy become my friend? And what about North Africa? Wasn’t this a golden opportunity for Algerian fundamentalists to arise? Would Egypt fall? Would anyone take advantage of the chaos to attack Israel?

When Desert Storm finally subsided, I was left with more questions than answers. To me, it was obvious that the war had ended as inconclusively as had World War I. I foresaw another conflict in the Middle East. The only question in my mind was who would be fighting against whom?

One side of the conflict was easy. Religious fundamentalists are fanatics. Like the Energizer Bunny, they just keep going and going. Their Jihad would be the spark that would burst upon the world.

Two Powers evolved in my mind. The first were the religious zealots of North Africa. The second was the Ba’ath party uniting Syria and Iraq. I added Iran to this second power block just to make things as dicey as possible.

I portrayed Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as victims, because that was the part they had played in Desert Storm. That left Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Again, history came to my rescue. Jordan became the neutral peacemaker. Egypt turned its attention towards its North African neighbors, but only half-heartedly. Israel mounted a preemptive attack against Syria.

But what about the United States? As shown in Desert Storm, we’d come running to the rescue with everything in our inventory. However, would there be any inventory left?

Even in 1990, the U.S. was downsizing its armed forces. The 600 ship Navy was struggling to hold out for three hundred. The two-front Army was being whittled down to a barely one front Army. The Air Force, which at one time could have blotted out the sun with its aircraft, was having trouble replacing thirty-year-old designs or finding the funds for advanced technologies.

I asked myself what the US Armed Forces would look like in forty years? The answer scared me. I concluded that we’d be unable to win a war such as the one I had proposed.

As a writer, it was up to me to prove my point. Today, most people believe that the world is at peace and the prospects of war are as remote as the far side of the moon. Yet, a Holy War, such as the one I describe in JIHAD: World War in 2036, could happen tomorrow. Unless things change dramatically, A Holy War is inevitable. All I had to do was to put together a worst-case scenario. Then, I programmed in the standard U.S. response to a standard threat to our national interests.

It was at that point that I lost control. Previously, I had ridiculed writers who had told me how the Muse had taken control of themselves, their story and their lives. Within minutes of beginning JIHAD, I had lost control. The book took over. Characters created themselves. Plots unfolded before my eyes. People and events flowed from my fingers into the keyboard and onto the screen, halting only when the very real pain in my all too real hands became too much to bear.

But, even then I could not stop. I walked around holding ice cubes in my hands to reduce the swelling. Yet, in spite of the pain, my minds continued writing. My brain roiled with activity whenever I lay down, forcing me to return to my make believe world and the real agony of my creation.

Then, thankfully, it was done. Yet, it was then that the hard work began. Stream of consciousness is a terrible taskmaster. Not only does it drive the author to pain and exhaustion but it leaves chaos in its wake.

The sculptor will look at the marble and see hidden within it a statue. It is their skill to remove the excess, revealing what had always been hidden within. In a similar manner, somewhere inside that bedlam of words I had created, a story was hidden. It took two years to remove the dross and reveal the story I had written.

I hope you enjoy JIHAD: World War in 2036. I also hope that you will take its underlying messages to heart.

Thanks,

Mac