The Cassandra Report

In 1998, the old Union had not fallen apart in the early nineties. It had merely retreated, continuing to exist in a different form. The United States had not ushered in a unipolar moment either. Instead, it faced its old rival in a new confrontation across an entire continent. The cobalt-mining corridor in Central Africa, the northern Rift Valley, Highway Three through the basin: the armed groups, mercenaries, and private military contractors backed by both sides fought back and forth through rainforests and mining districts. Cobalt, diamonds, uranium: they fought over anything valuable. Politicians on Capitol Hill and at the Union's Central Committee blamed each other in conference rooms, applying pressure with aid bills, sanctions lists, and evacuation budgets. No one remembered why the fighting had started. They only knew the supply lines could not be cut, positions could not be lost, and casualty figures could not reach the newspapers. As the fighting grew more intense, both sides poured large quantities of new weapons onto the battlefield. New tanks? New weapons? Or perhaps new tactics? At first, everyone thought this was just a war that had never ended.