Thomas Jefferson, Senator and Minister of War of the Pan-American Union, sat at his desk in his tipi, scratching elaborate pictograms onto clay tablets. Jefferson's tipi, one of the several dozen that currently made up the War Department complex in Washington, was all that he had managed to weasel out of the Senate's budget for the year to plan, organize, and oversee the common defence the Union from. Although he hadn't managed to secure funding for a nice hardwood longhouse that he had lobbied for, he had at least managed to avoid the indignity of basing his Department out of a mudhut. Even the notoriously tax-averse and executive-authority-wary people of Pan-America weren't going to subject their military to that kind of humiliation.

Well, he could hardly blame the voters too much. After all, there was no hostile foreign power anywhere close to the borders of the Union, and it was a hard to convince people to spend their hard-earned dough to prepare against enemies that haven't yet materialized. But Jefferson, and his few allies in the Senate that had ensured that some meagre portion of his proposed military budget passed through the Senate, knew that this tranquil state of affairs could not and would not last for long. Already, rumours had begun to filter in from nomadic wanderers, enterprising merchants, and belligerent intelligence officials with funny accents about other fledgling cities and nations: Brazilians to the south, some kind of bootleg Russians to the northwest, and more distantly, Belgians to the northeast and Aussies to the southwest. Some more eccentric sources had even reported prides of sentient cats roaming around on some continent to the southeast, but such foolishness could hardly be believed.

Sooner or later, conflict with one or more of those nations was inevitable, and Jefferson was determined to make sure that the Pan-American Union would win any such future conflicts. He had already secured the appointment of a seasoned military man and clever tactician, one Blob Rott, as Commanding General of the Army, to command the landborne forces of the Union in the field of battle. But competent senior battlefield leadership was only one prerequisite for winning wars; a necessary one, but hardly sufficient on its own. A large base of able-bodied citizens to recruit from, an industrial base capable of producing materiel in quantity and quality, a trained and battle-hardened non-commissioned and junior officer corps, a national tradition of disciplined military arts, an intelligence apparatus to gather and analyze information on hostile governments and militaries, the logistics capability to transport and supply the military wherever it's needed, and countless other facets were all necessary for winning wars reliably.

Jefferson had a lot of work to get done before his nation's first war, and not a lot of money or public support to get it done. But he would, he must, get it done. For freedom and democracy must not fall to the forces of evil. The communists, fascists, and other enemies of the Union must not be allowed to invade its lands, subjugate its populace, and sully its honour.

Oorah!