human
Guémama better start pulling back those men more quickly,
gpt
He will. He's a good man, Homer told him.
human
What's up?
gpt
Evidently, Colonel Ibrahim has decided to come out of retirement. He's sent small motorized elements to Effok, In Fedjeg, Otoul and even to Tahifet.
human
And--?
gpt
And has taken them all, of course. Our men fall back, fighting a stubborn rear-guard action, taking as few casualties as possible.
human
I don't get it, Homer bit out.
gpt
He's using up his fuel and ammunition and losing more men than we are. Certainly he can't figure, with the thousand odd troops he has, to be able to take and hold enough of the oases and water holes in this vicinity to push us out completely.
human
What worries me is the possibility that he knows something we don't. That he's figuring on being relieved or has a new source of fuel, ammunition and men on tap.
gpt
The roads are cut. Our men hold every source of water from here to Libya and the Reunited Nations has put thumbs down on aircraft which eliminates an air lift.
human
Yeah,
gpt
Hey, guess what we've liberated.
human
A bottle of Scotch?
gpt
A king-size portable radio transmitter. Ralph Sandell knew about it. The Sahara Afforestation Project people were going to use it to propagandize the tribesmen into coming in and taking jobs in the new oases.
human
That's why we need an El Hassan in this country, he complained.
gpt
They put a couple of million dollars into a radio transmitter, never asking themselves how many of the bedouin own radios.
human
Wait a moment, you chaps. Didn't Bey capture a couple of Arab Legion radio technicians today?
gpt
They defected to us, Homer Crawford said, looking up from an improvised desk where he was poring over some supply papers with Isobel.
human
What did you have in mind, Jack?
gpt
There are radios in Tamanrasset. In fact, there's probably a radio in every one of those military vehicles of Ibrahim's. Why can't we blanket these Arab Union chaps with El Hassan propaganda? Quite a few of them are from Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. In short, they're Africans and susceptible to El Hassan's dream.
human
Good man. Take over the details, Jack,
gpt
The temperature is rising in the Reunited Nations--and everywhere else, for that matter. Damascus and Cairo have been getting increasingly belligerent. Homer, it looks as though the Arab Union is getting ready to go out on a limb. Weeks have passed since Colonel Ibrahim first took Tamanrasset and the Reunited Nations, the United States, the Soviet Complex and all others interested in North Africa, have failed to do anything. Everybody, evidently, afraid of precipitating something that couldn't be ended.
human
I know, he said.
gpt
Something is about to blow. Dave has sent some of his best men into Tamanrasset to pick up gossip in the souks. Morale was dragging bottom among the legionnaires just a couple of days ago. Now they seem to have a new lease.
human
In spite of the sabotage our people have been committing?
gpt
That's falling off somewhat, Cliff said.
human
At first our more enthusiastic followers were able to pull everything from heaving Molotov Cocktails into tanks, to pouring sugar in hover-jeep gas tanks, but the legionnaires have both smartened up and gotten very tough.
gpt
Good,
human
Atrocities, he said.
gpt
In order to guard against sabotage, the legionnaires will be taking measures that will antagonize the people in Tamanrasset. They'll shoot a couple of teenage kids, or something, then they'll have a city-wide mess on their hands.
human
It seems a nasty way to win a war.
gpt
There is no way of winning a war other than a nasty one.
human
Fred Ostrander has been bending my ear for the past hour or so. Do you want to talk to him?
gpt
About what?
human
I don't know. He has a lot of questions. I think he's beginning to suspect--just _suspect_, understand--that possibly the whole bunch of us aren't receiving our daily instructions from either Moscow or Peking.
gpt
Show him in. He's the only thing we have in the way of a contact with the United States of the Americas and sooner or later we're going to have to make our peace with both them and the Soviet Complex. In fact, what we're probably going to have to do is play one against the other, getting grants, loans, economic assistance--
human
Technicians, teachers, arms,
gpt
Arms! If there's anything this part of the world doesn't need it's more arms. In fact, that goes for the rest of the world, too. In the old days when the great nations were first beginning to attempt to line up the neutrals they sent aid to such countries by the billions--and most of it in arms. How ridiculous can you get? Putting arms in the hands of most of the governments of that time was like handing a loaded pistol to an idiot.
human
I bow before your wisdom,