"William W Johnstone - Ashes 22 - Chaos in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

"We start reclaiming our territory. Slow and easy. But this time we're
going to be fighting a political war as well as a fire-fight. I hate to
use the term, but we're going to have to win the hearts and minds-"

Cecil groaned and Ben laughed. "Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

Cecil said, "I don't believe these people we'll be fighting, many of
them, even want a government, Ben."

"Maybe so. But this nation can't exist without some form of government.
We certainly can't have anarchy. And the liberals don't want that either
... in the long run. But for now they're using anarchy for their own
gain. We have a government, Cec. As long as there are people working
together to make something better, to pull something useful out of the
ashes, we have a government. But when we start our push, we're going to
take it easy. We're going to talk to the people and listen to what they
have to say. That's something that hasn't really happened since town
meetings went out of style. Maybe we'll never be able to put this
country back together again. Maybe we'll die as old men trying to do it.
Maybe we'll die tomorrow trying to do it. But we've got to try. It can't
be business as usual. We did something wrong, Cec. Blanton did something
wrong. But our basic Tri-States philosophy works; we proved that. At
least it works for us. But how about the millions of people who say they
can't live under that type of open government? What about them? Is it
that they can't live under our rules, or that they won't live under
them? We won't be able to solve the problem until we understand it."

Cecil stared at him for a moment, then chuckled. The laughter took years
from the man. "What is this, a new Ben Raines?"

21

21

"In a way, perhaps it is. Might be better, might be worse. We'll just
have to see." He looked over at Jersey. "What do you have to say about
it, Little Bit?"

"Well, the way I see it, we're going to kick them in the ass and then
extend a hand to help them up."

Ben laughed. "That about sums it up. Now let's go see if it works."

22

The transports never stopped except for maintenance. As the days drifted
slowly into weeks, the Rebel battalions were gathering strength, back on
American soil. Still Ben made no moves against those malcontents who now
controlled-or thought they did-much of what used to be called the
Southern United States of America. The SUSA. He would not move until he