Episode Summary:
When the flash of a secret nuclear detonation is detected over the Indian Ocean, Bartlet calls upon his people to investigate which nation now has the atomic bomb–and since conventional thinking favors Iran, Bartlet orders bombers into the air to destroy that nation’s most likely uranium-enriched targets. Meanwhile, Josh chides NASA personnel on the future of space exploration–until he is introduced to an attractive female administrator. C.J. fumes when a combative television talk-show host, Taylor Reid (Jay Mohr), denigrates her on the air, and Will discloses to Vice President Russell (Gary Cole) that Russell is considered a buffoon by the White House staff.
Script:
THE WEST WING 5x13 - "THE WARFARE OF GENGHIS KHAN" WRITTEN BY PETER NOAH DIRECTED BY BILL D'ELIA TRANSCRIBED BY SOUNDMAN FOR TWIZ TV.COM. SEND FEEDBACK TO [email protected]. TEASER FADE IN: INT. - RESIDENCE - BEDROOM - NIGHT THURSDAY 3:16 AM We hear the phone on the bedside table ringing. We see a light flashing on it. After it rings several times, Bartlet answers it groggily. BARTLET [into phone] Yes? ... Please. ... Yeah, Leo. He sits up in bed as he listens. CUT TO: INT. - SITUATION ROOM - NIGHT We see someone righting on the map at the far end of the table. We hear everyone called to attention as the President walks in wearing his Air Force One windbreaker. He is obviously still waking up. Leo, McNally, Slattery, Hutchinson, and Alexander are seated around the table. BARTLET Good morning. ALL Good morning, sir. BARTLET Or whatever 3:00 am is. Please. They all sit down. BARTLET Let's have a look. We see a zoomed in region shown on one of the maps. BARTLET Where? HUTCHINSON Over the north central Indian Ocean, sir. Not near anything. BARTLET Are you sure? McNALLY It's the telltale double flash. ALEXANDER All atmospheric detonations produce that unique signature, sir; an initial one-millisecond flash, the fireball, which is then overtaken and obscured by the expanding shock front. BARTLET So, it couldn't be anything else? HUTCHINSON No. ALEXANDER And no false alarms have ever been ascribed to the NDS. LEO Other sensors? HUTCHINSON Still being analyzed. But both the X-ray and EMP detectors show readings consistent with atmospheric detonation. BARTLET Who else knows? HUTCHINSON Sir? LEO Who else in the world? ALEXANDER The Russians and the Chinese have satellite detection capability for an atmospheric NUDET. HUTCHINSON Nuclear detonation, sir. Bartlet stands as his concern and understanding of the situation seem to grow. McNALLY Sir, no test was scheduled or has been reported by any of the other six declared nuclear powers. BARTLET Yeah. We see on the map an image of the detonation. LEO There's a new member of the club. Bartlet looks concerned about this new revelation. SMASH CUT TO: MAIN TITLES. END TEASER. * * * ACT ONE FADE IN: INT. - OVAL OFFICE - NIGHT 4:06 AM We see Charlie handing coffee cups to several members of the National Security Team. CHARLIE The mess isn't open yet, sir. This is from the Secret Service command post. BARTLET If it's too hot, they wrestle it to the ground. CHARLIE The CIA director called. He's been held... CIA DIRECTOR SLIGER I'm here! Sorry. Construction on Lee. They do it at night. LEO To avoid snarling traffic. SLIGER That's the theory. BARTLET We just started. Thanks, Charlie. Charlie leaves and shuts the door. BARTLET We've talked to the Russians and the Chinese? SLATTERY They agree about keeping this quiet. BARTLET Whoever this was, they knew we'd pick it up. LEO Likely suspects? HUTCHINSON North Korea or Iran. BARTLET Yeah. SLIGER They've both been heading down this road. We just didn't know they'd gotten this far. McNALLY We were pretty sure about North Korea. SLIGER Well, "sure" is a word we don't throw around at Langley. LEO There've been strong indications the North has nuclear weapons. BARTLET What about Iran? SLIGER Well, the intel is sketchy. McNALLY We know they've been working on it. SLIGER There's that other word: "know". BARTLET What we know and are sure of is this happened. We're going to need to focus less on semantic distinctions and more on how this caught us so completely by surprise. We need to make contact. The Chinese for North Korea? Slattery slightly nods his head in the affirmative. LEO Iran? SLATTERY Usually the Italians or the Swiss. LEO No good. We don't want them in the loop. BARTLET The Russians, then. We can assume Moscow's not crazy about the idea of another nuclear state in their neighborhood. McNALLY Sir, what if this wasn't a state? LEO A terror group? HUTCHINSON No terrorists have the capability for a test on this scale. Their nuclear event will be a suitcase bomb detonated in Manhattan. BARTLET Or Pennsylvania Avenue. Thank you, everyone. ALL Thank you, sir. They all leave except for Leo. LEO Little rough with the Director? BARTLET I'll send him a lollipop. LEO You want your Intelligence head focused and at his best. BARTLET Guy couldn't find a clear route in at 4:00 in the morning. I'm not over-brimming with confidence. This is the nightmare. [pause] I thought when the Soviet Union fell, we could actually have disarmament. You go from trying to get rid of these weapons altogether to holding your breath one doesn't go off on your watch. Strike another goal off the list. LEO We find out who this was, then what? BARTLET We'll have to do something. I want a Defense briefing on contingency plans. LEO We act, we'll need a statement. BARTLET Toby? LEO Sooner is better. They both begin to turn to leave. BARTLET Oh, God. LEO What? BARTLET The Vice President. LEO Yeah. I'll brief him. BARTLET Apologize. Tell him... I don't know what the hell to tell him. Bartlet walks out onto the portico and heads back toward the Residence. CUT TO: INT. - WHITE HOUSE LOBBY - DAY 7:58 AM We see Donna walk through the doors from Josh's Bullpen area and then we see Josh walking into the building. Donna joins him as they begin walking toward the Mural Room. JOSH Hey. DONNA Morning. So this meeting's a breakfast. JOSH Okay. DONNA So you have to eat something. JOSH I already ate. DONNA Or else it's rude. JOSH I'm not hungry. DONNA Or else it's rude. JOSH [sighing] This order, as soon as I get back. Why am I even meeting with some geeks from NASA? He takes off his coat and hands it to her. DONNA I'm sure they're not geeks. I'm sure they're not all geeks, and it's to discuss administration space priorities. Do we even have space priorities? JOSH Exactly. Josh walks into the MURAL ROOM. Several people from NASA are there. They are all wearing nametags. A man named KARL seems to be the spokesperson for the group. JOSH Morning. KARL Good morning. JOSH You have nametags? KARL Haven't been to the White House much these five years. Thought it'd help. JOSH Right, "Karl". KARL I recommend the scones. They're... JOSH Out of this world? RUSSELL [prelap] Leo? CUT TO: INT. - VICE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY Leo comes into the Vice President's office. They walk over to his desk and sit down. LEO Mr. Vice President. RUSSELL Please. LEO Thank you. RUSSELL What's up? LEO Sir, this is to be kept in the strictest of confidence. At approximately 2:17 am eastern time, an atmospheric nuclear detonation was detected by a DSP satellite over the Indian Ocean. RUSSELL Pakistan's attacked India. LEO No, sir. This was a test. RUSSELL Pakistan being provocative. Shot-across-the-bow sort of thing. LEO It wasn't Pakistan. If you'll just let me finish. No nation has claimed credit. We're trying to ascertain who was responsible, but it appears there's a new player on the nuclear stage. RUSSELL Is India mobilizing? LEO It was 1,200 miles from India. India has no idea that it happened. RUSSELL But, I don't... LEO Let me start again. CUT TO: INT. - CJ'S OFFICE - DAY Carol is on the phone. CAROL [into phone] Hang on. She presses a button and then replaces the receiver. She walks into C.J.'s office. CAROL It's him again. C.J. Him, who? Ben. Take a message. CAROL He gets any more persistent, they're going to open a case file. Can I just tell him you're not worth it? C.J. We used to date; he knows better. C.J. walks out of her office and into the hallway. Toby walks up and joins her, walking and talking as they head toward the briefing room. TOBY Feeling frisky? C.J. Remembrance of things past. TOBY The briefing, two things to deflect. New Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. You can do it. C.J. 'We discourage new settlements; deplore Palestinian terror.' Balance but not too much balance. No moral equivalence... TOBY The greatest hits. C.J. The golden oldies. Second thing? TOBY RINOs. C.J. Endangered species, powdered horn considered an aphrodisiac. That were the word "horny" come from? TOBY Not precisely, it's... These aren't the animals. It's "Republicans In Name Only". C.J. "RINOs". Adorable. TOBY Right-wings new name for GOP members who voted with us. They're being targeted in the primaries, uh... C.J. 'We're happy to stay out of that particular slap-fight in the schoolyard.' TOBY Make it 'sandbox'. C.J. writes something on her notepad as Toby walks away and she walks into the briefing room. CUT TO: INT. - VICE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY Leo and Russell come out of the office. RUSSELL Thanks, Leo. Don't hesitate to call on me if I can be useful in any way. LEO Be sure to let you know, sir. Russell returns to his office as Leo walks away. We see Will walk up to Leo as he is leaving. WILL Leo, anything I need to be aware of? LEO Uh-uh. WILL I've been thinking. To build the VP's issue profile, I'm wondering if there's some policy area the administration could give him. LEO Such as? WILL Well, I have some notions, certainly. LEO Take it up with Toby. WILL Yeah, thing is, he and I, ever since... LEO Take it up with him. That's what he does. If you two have problems, work them out. I'm not a couple's therapist. WILL Yeah. KARL [prelap] A probe must launch by then... CUT TO: INT. - MURAL ROOM - DAY Josh and the men from NASA are still talking. KARL [cont.] ... to use Jupiter's gravitational field as a slingshot. The data gathered about Kuiper Belt objects would be invaluable. JOSH Listen, I... appreciate your coming in, but you may be meeting with the wrong guy. My knowledge about space is like the old joke about the official announcing a new program. He says, 'We're going to go where no one has ever been. We're going to land on... the sun!' Reporter says, 'But, sir, the sun's a burning mass of fire.' The official replies, 'Ah! Thought of that. That's why we're going to go at night.' What I know is politics. Public perception. And the image of NASA is not good. Telescopes launched that can't focus. Planetary probes that crashed because engineers mixed up meters and feet. The only time NASA makes the front page anymore, is when something goes wrong. You need to get off the front page. This administration has only one space priority: that you guys stop screwing up. Thanks for your time. He gets up and leaves. LEO [prelap] Will's going to come to you... CUT TO: INT. - WHITE HOUSE HALLWAY - DAY Toby and Leo are walking down the hallway, talking as they go. LEO [cont.] ... about a policy brief for the Vice President. TOBY Unfortunately, everything we have, we care about. LEO We've got to give him something. TOBY What can he handle? Potholes. LEO Infrastructure? TOBY No, I mean actual potholes, on - I don't know - the interstate. LEO Come up with something low-profile and easy. Keep him out from under-foot. They have reached the door to Toby's office. [whispering] There's another thing. They go in and close the door. LEO We've got trouble, Toby. TOBY Uh-huh? Leo begins telling him what is going on. He speaks in a soft whisper that we can't hear. CUT TO: INT. - OVAL OFFICE - DAY Bartlet is sitting at his desk signing some papers. We hear a knock at the door and we see Leo and Toby enter from Leo's office. BARTLET You go see the Vice President? LEO When I briefed him, he kind of tilted his head. I'll update him after. NANCY Sir? Everyone's here. Bartlet motions for her to sent them in. NANCY You can come in. McNally, Hutchinson, Slattery, and Sliger all come in from the Outer Oval Office. They stand in a line in front of the President's desk. BARTLET Where are we? SLATTERY The Chinese have no indication North Korea did this. McNALLY Beijing feels comfortable ruling out China. BARTLET What do we think? SLIGER It's good news and bad. We think North Korea's got two bombs, probably more. TOBY Please let that be the bad news. SLIGER 'Cause we also believe their technology's so advanced they don't need to perform tests. BARTLET Why does the good news make me feel worse? Iran. Bartlet gets up from his chair and stands behind his desk. HUTCHINSON Moscow doesn't think so. LEO They might just be covering their own ass. McNALLY There's rumors about three missing warheads from Kazakhstan that supposedly wound up in Iran. SLIGER Rumors. McNALLY Persistent ones... that I get from your people. LEO The IAEA reports Iran's had a secret nuclear program for the past 18 years. HUTCHINSON It makes more geographic sense. The Korean peninsula's 4,000 miles from the blast site. LEO What it's near is Iran. McNALLY Sir, given the volatility of the region, a secret test would be how Iran would certainly proceed. BARTLET All right, let's put our cards on the table. What helped keep the Cold War cold was a sense of moral restraint that these weapons were to terrible to use. LEO That restraint won't exist in jihadists who strap bombs to their chests and enter nightclubs. SLIGER There are moderate elements on the ascendancy in Iran. TOBY "In the Koran, God commanded to kill the wicked and those who do not see the rights of the oppressed and to murder them. If we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill." Televised address by President Alijani: Moderate. BARTLET Mr. Slattery, have the Iranian Ambassador to the U.N. fly down to the Swiss embassy to meet with you immediately. SLATTERY Thank you, Mr. President. BARTLET Thank you, all. ALL Thank you, sir. They all leave as Bartlet contemplates what is happening. FADE OUT. END ACT ONE. * * * ACT TWO FADE IN: INT. - PRESS BRIEFING ROOM - DAY 10:56 AM We see and hear that CJ is briefing the press. C.J. Lyle? LYLE What's the reaction to announcements of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank? C.J. Our position remains that we discourage such activities. LYLE Well, is the administration contemplating a more forceful expression of disapproval? C.J. We continue to urge every party in the region to take every step to reduce tensions. Steve? STEVE Do you have a response to Taylor Reid? C.J. That's hard to say, never having heard of... Is it him or her? STEVE On his new cable show last night, you were named "Chicken of the Week". C.J. Sorry? STEVE His designation of the newsperson who he says is refusing to appear on his show. C.J. Well, it's hard to refuse to appear on something you've never heard of. STEVE So, you'd be willing to go on? C.J. I have no idea. Though, truly, what girl can resist being referred to as poultry? Gail? CUT TO: INT. - WHITE HOUSE - BASEMENT - HALLWAY - DAY Toby and Leo are walking. TOBY What about going to the U.N.? LEO It'll be discussed. TOBY Isn't that what it's there for? LEO Yeah. But this isn't the room where you talk about that. They have arrived at the door to the situation room. Leo enters a code on the keypad, and then places his hand on the palm scanner. Leo enters the situation room and Toby remains in the hallway. CUT TO: INT. - SITUATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS The National Security Team is seated around the table and they are talking as Leo comes in and sits down next to Bartlet. BARTLET Follow-up confirms it was a nuclear blast? HUTCHINSON Yes, sir. We're still gathering data on precise yield and type. BARTLET Options, General. ALEXANDER North Korea's nuclear facilities and weapons are stored in tunnels a half mile underground. Unreachable by air power. And they've threatened nuclear retaliation in the event of attack, presumably against the South, but also conceivably against Australia or Japan. McNALLY Or us. They've tested a missile that could possibly reach the U.S. BARTLET And Iran? ALEXANDER There are available nuclear targets for air strike. HUTCHINSON The downside is a potential retaliatory nuclear strike at Israel. CUT TO: INT. - JOSH'S OFFICE - DAY Josh is seated at his desk as ALEX MOREAU comes in and introduces herself. As she is speaking, he stands up behind his desk. ALEX MOREAU Mr. Lyman? Alex Moreau, Assistant Administrator, NASA. I was at the breakfast. I mention it because you were hardly there long enough to take any of us in. You're wrong about us only getting on the front page when we screw up; Hubble images appear on page one all the time. JOSH You're sending up a new telescope. MOREAU The Webb, yes. Out past the moon. JOSH Every news story noted it'll be too far out for the Shuttle to fix if it's all screwed up, like the Hubble was. I prepare even for meetings I don't' want to go to. I wasn't improvising. You guys are lost in space. Josh sits back down and Alex comes in and sits across from him. MOREAU Well, I agree with you, NASA's lost purpose. But the problem isn't getting off the front page, its getting back on. The New York Times has never published a larger headline than when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. JOSH Only, you don't do that anymore. Now, it's launches to service the pointless International Space Station - which should be re-christened the SS Good Money After Bad. It's all low-earth orbits. It like if, 30 years after Columbus, Spain expected people to get hot and bothered about a trip to Mallorca. MOREAU That's why we need to do this. She reaches down and grabs something out of her bag. She lays a button on Josh's desk. It is red and has 'MOB' printed on it. JOSH What's this? He picks up the button and looks at it. MOREAU 'Mars or Bust'. We want the government to commit to a manned mission to Mars. JOSH There aren't 20 votes for it in Congress. You couldn't get funding for the buttons. He drops the button back on his desk. MOREAU The Republican Congress isn't the problem. It's liberals that killed the space program. JOSH Yeah, 'cause we like to use government money to, I don't know, help people. MOREAU Space travel's inspirational. You don't think that helps people? JOSH Not like feeding them or getting them jobs. MOREAU Well, you have to feed the soul, too. Ever look through a telescope? JOSH In school. Uh, a guy on my floor liked to aim one at the women's dorm. MOREAU What're you doing tonight? JOSH Uh... MOREAU Until you get a good look at what's up there, you only think you're prepared. Pick you up at 8:00. She gets up and leaves the office. Josh gets up and walks out of his office and over to Donna's cubicle. JOSH Donna, cancel my dinner with Bregstone tonight. DONNA Stargazing? JOSH You were listening? DONNA I'm right outside. [pause] Would you be going if she weren't attractive? JOSH We'll never know. CUT TO: INT. - TOBY'S OFFICE - DAY We see Will walking through the Communications Office and into Toby's office. WILL [clearing throat] Did you... TOBY I spoke to Leo. I got the Vice President a policy focus. WILL Great. TOBY Good government. WILL Not that chestnut. "Reducing bureaucracy, rewriting regulations into plain English." TOBY Extremely important. WILL And incredibly boring. TOBY As is the Vice President. A match made in heaven. WILL I don't think many theologians would stipulate Toby Ziegler's office as heaven. TOBY You asked, and ye have received. WILL And, yet, my joy is less than full. "Revoking the franking privilege". TOBY I have work to do. Will turns and leaves through the door. TOBY Close the door. Will closes the door and walks away. CUT TO: INT. - MEETING ROOM - DAY 12:08 THE SWISS EMBASSY Leo, McNally, and Slattery are standing around waiting for the IRANIAN AMBASSADOR. McNALLY Lovely room. SLATTERY The Swiss like nice things. LEO You can afford them when you don't have to pay for a national defense. A woman comes to the doorway and ushers in the Ambassador. LEO Mr. Ambassador. AMBASSADOR Mr. McGarry. ASSISTANT Do you require anything else? LEO No thank you, ma'am. The assistant leaves as Leo introduces the Ambassador to the others. He shakes both their hands as they are introduced. LEO National Security Advisor McNally, Assistant Secretary of State Slattery. I hope the trip down wasn't too inconvenient. AMBASSADOR The summons was a bit abrupt. LEO Please. They all sit. LEO We'd like to discuss your nuclear program. AMBASSADOR We've agreed to IAEA inspections, suspended production on enriched uranium. LEO Temporarily. McNALLY Your 40-megawatt heavy water reactor at Arak. It's a size too small for electricity generation, and larger than for research. LEO The type that provides fuel for nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan. AMBASSADOR And Israel, I understand. SLATTERY The Iranian exile organization NCR has identified other secret enrichment facilities: the Lashkar-Abad site near Hashtgerd, a site near Ramandeh village... LEO Why are you enriching uranium? AMBASSADOR For reactor fuel, for power generation, as our European friends recognize is our sovereign right. LEO Power you don't need, with you oil and gas reserves. AMBASSADOR It is necessary, because of rising domestic consumption rates, and our desire to preserve oil and gas to generate foreign currency. McNALLY You displayed the Shahab 3 missile. The only logical purpose for such a long-range weapon is to carry a nuclear payload. AMBASSADOR And we enjoy and anticipate stable relations with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan. These are the nations within range of this missile. LEO And Israel, I understand. Sir, we believe your country has been engaged in developing nuclear weapons. AMBASSADOR The Ayatollah has decreed their production to be haram - prohibited on religious grounds. We consider the development and use of such weapons to be immoral, inhumane, and against our basic Islamic beliefs. In contrast to the United States, which is not merely the only nation to ever employ such weapons--twice--but also brought the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust with the Cuban missile crisis. LEO The United States will not tolerate these weapons' further proliferation. AMBASSADOR It is disconcerting to be dictated to by the only transgressor in human history. LEO Let me make myself plain, Mr. Ambassador. Evidence that Iran possesses or has tested a nuclear weapon will be greeted by the United States as a matter of gravest consequence. AMBASSADOR Are we finished? Leo nods and they all get up. AMBASSADOR I know what terrifies you: an Islamic bomb. LEO And I know what concerns Iran: a Jewish bomb. AMBASSADOR Einstein, Oppenheimer, Teller... They're all Jewish bombs. He leaves them. FADE OUT. END ACT TWO. * * * ACT THREE FADE IN: INT. - HALLWAY - OUTSIDE LEO'S OFFICE - DAY 3:36 PM Josh is standing against the wall and he is reading a newspaper. Leo walks out of his office and they walk together as they talk. JOSH You all right? You look tired. LEO I've been tired five years. JOSH Tired... er. LEO One of those days. JOSH So, I had this meeting with NASA this morning. LEO What a waste, since the moon. My generation never got the future it was promised. JOSH What do you mean? LEO 35 years later, cars, air travel's the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore. Technology stopped. JOSH The personal computer. LEO A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography. Where's my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon? Just a waste. Leo walks off. CUT TO: INT. - CJ'S OFFICE - DAY Carol walks in to C.J.'s office. C.J. is sitting at her desk. CAROL Chris Aldrich of the Sun wants ten minutes, and Danny Concannon left a message. C.J. And it is...? CAROL I'm not sure I can do it justice. C.J. Carol... CAROL Okay. It's "bawk, bawk-bawk, bawk". Chicken noises. This whole Taylor Reid show thing. C.J. Get me a copy of the show. BARTLET [prelap] Latest intel. CUT TO: INT. - SITUATION ROOM - DAY Bartlet and the National Security Team are seated around the table. SLIGER Combing through spy satellite data going back a week, analyzing for any suspicious presence at the blast site. HUTCHINSON U-2s are over Iran and North Korea, monitoring for any unusual activity. LEO Any conclusions? HUTCHINSON No smoking gun. BARTLET Recommendations. If it's North Korea. HUTCHINSON It's not. The Chinese don't think so, the CIA. SLIGER We can't say definitively, but no, it doesn't appear likely it was the Koreans. BARTLET Iran, then. General? ALEXANDER Surgical air strikes on enrichment sites. LEO Which ones? HUTCHINSON All five. In for a penny. McNALLY If they retaliate? ALEXANDER They'll regret it. Bartlet stands up and everyone else follows. BARTLET Get the B-2s in the air, General. ALEXANDER Yes, sir. BARTLET We go the minute, and I mean the minute, we're certain. Bartlet leaves. ALL Thank you, Mr. President. RUSSELL [prelap] "Good government"? CUT TO: INT. - VICE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY Russell and Will are talking in his office. WILL Curtailing Congressional junkets, shuttering archaic agricultural field offices... RUSSELL You don't think I should do it? WILL It buries you in minutia. The public's all for it, but they'd rather chug sewage than have to hear anyone discuss it. RUSSELL You know, it's easy to characterize junkets as vacations at taxpayer's expense, but they serve a purpose. Contacts get made, frank exchanges take place that would never happen in the glare of Washington. WILL Reason enough to beg off. You don't fully agree with the administration's stance. Russell looks as though he has just thought of something profound. WILL Sir? RUSSELL Will you excuse me? WILL Yeah, of course, sir. Will leaves as Russell thinks. CUT TO: INT. - CJ'S OFFICE - DAY C.J. is watching a tape of the Taylor Reid show. Toby walks in while she is watching it. TAYLOR REID ... and when you work for a man like the President, who's got, what I think you could generously characterize as a casual relationship with the truth... When your job is to go out and be his spokesperson, the question that naturally arises is how can you justify lying for your boss the way C.J. Cregg has to. And if Ms. Cregg isn't a liar, then the only obvious conclusion to draw is that she's either gullible, and idiot, or so completely out of the loop that she shouldn't be drawing a salary. She shuts off the TV. Toby has sat down on the couch. TOBY I want to see where he calls you a chicken. She turns and glares at him. TOBY But can wait. C.J. I want a piece of that twerp. TOBY You can't win. C.J. I'd mop the floor with him - smirk first. TOBY You'd just keep it alive. Old newspaper adage: "Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel." Toby's pager goes off. He takes it out and looks at it and then replaces it. TOBY I've got to go. C.J. Something going on? TOBY I'll see you in the morning. Toby leaves. CUT TO: INT. - OVAL OFFICE - DAY Bartlet is pacing his office while he is reading a book. Charlie knocks and enters from the outer office. CHARLIE Excuse me, sir. BARTLET I know. I've got to get dressed for the HHS thing. CHARLIE Mr. President, you should cancel. It's been a long day, sir. BARTLET I'll be fine. CHARLIE You should get some rest. BARTLET I'm not sure I could sleep. He closes the book. BARTLET I'm going to get dressed. CHARLIE Yes, Mr. President. Bartlet leaves and then Charlie returns to the outer office and shuts the door. CUT TO: INT. - LEO'S OFFICE - DAY Leo is seated at his desk. Toby comes in. TOBY Yeah. LEO Shut the door. Toby shuts the door and walks over to Leo's desk. LEO B-2s have taken off. Their targets are five uranium enrichment sites in Iran. TOBY We've confirmed it was them? LEO It's not a go till we're sure. TOBY Is this the room? LEO What? TOBY Where we talk about the U.N. So far, I'm the only one bringing it up. LEO The U.N. doesn't want this. They want to wring their hands and censure us after, but they expect us to take care of things like this. And after they've exhausted themselves calling us warmongers and imperialists they'll go home and quietly drink toasts to their relief. TOBY Unilateral air strikes. LEO Have a statement ready. Toby leaves the office. CUT TO: EXT. - STREET - NIGHT We see an SUV driving down the street. Josh and Alex Moreau are inside. MOREAU [VO] I have a political question. JOSH [VO] Hmm? MOREAU [VO] If the theory of democracy is that people have the most direct connection to officials at the... CUT TO: INT. - CAR - CONTINUOUS MOREAU [cont.] ... most local level, how come everybody can name the President, but no one knows who their assemblymen is? JOSH Complacency--who knows? It's like asking why the sky's blue. MOREAU The colors that make up light have different wavelengths. The color with the shortest wavelength, blue, is the most easily dispersed. So, when sunlight hits the Earth's atmosphere, blue's what gets scattered most. Josh looks at her as though he has no idea what she's talking about. MOREAU Why the sky's blue. CUT TO: INT. LEO'S OFFICE - NIGHT Leo is sitting at his desk. The phone is ringing. He answers it. LEO [into phone] Yeah. ... Can this wait till tomorrow? ... Put him on. ... Yes, Mr. Vice President. CUT TO: EXT. - DC COUNTRYSIDE - NIGHT The SUV that Alex and Josh are riding in parks on a country hillside. MOREAU This is good. Alex gets out, followed by Josh. They go to the back of the SUV and grab the equipment. MOREAU Here, could you...? JOSH You want me to carry that? MOREAU Yes, please. JOSH Okay. When you said... I thought we were going to some big observatory. MOREAU You're not ready for that. You need to have the same experience nine-year-olds are having all across the country tonight. JOSH Are they ruining their shoes, too? CUT TO: INT. - HALLWAY - OUTSIDE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE - NIGHT Leo, Nancy, and Russell are walking. They walk past the Communications office. CUT TO: INT. - TOBY'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Toby is sitting at his desk. He watches the three walk by. CUT TO: EXT. - DC COUNTRYSIDE - NIGHT Josh and Alex have set the telescope up and they are getting ready to look at the stars. MOREAU Amazing once you get away from the city lights. JOSH There's one named after me up there. The Josh and Linda star. MOREAU The International Star Registry. Romantic. JOSH Yeah. Name something that's going to be there for billions of years after two people who won't be speaking in six months. MOREAU Alex and Guillermo. JOSH Guillermo? MOREAU Yeah. Chilean. Long story. JOSH Sexy. Player. Dumped you. MOREAU Okay, not such a long story. Go ahead. Alex has adjusted the telescope using the remote she is holding in her hand. Josh bends over to look through the telescope. We see Jupiter through the telescope. MOREAU Jupiter. The dots on either side are the four Galilean moons. You're seeing what Galileo saw 400 years ago. JOSH I remember studying Jupiter. It has 13 moons. MOREAU Yeah, it has 61. JOSH 61?! MOREAU Go ahead. She adjusts it again. Josh again looks through it. We see a nebula through it. JOSH Wow. What is that? MOREAU The Orion Nebula. Gas and dust. Stars are born in that. Well, born and die, actually. Everything, every atom in our bodies comes from exploding stars. I guess Joni Mitchell was right. We are stardust. JOSH Or, put another way, nuclear waste. She adjusts it again and indicates for Josh to look. This time, we see Mars through the telescope. JOSH Is that...? MOREAU Mars. Since it's near its closest point, you are getting the best look at it anyone's had at it in 60,000 years. CUT TO: INT. - SITUATION ROOM - NIGHT We see two military officers open the door as Bartlet enters the Situation Room. They National Security Team, as well as the Vice President, is seated at the table. They are called to attention as Bartlet comes to his seat. BARTLET Everyone. LEO Good evening, sir. BARTLET One thing about this job: it's hard to unobtrusively slip out of a party. They all sit. LEO Mr. Vice President, would you tell everyone what you told me? RUSSELL I was on a Congressional junket to the Mideast last year. Wound up at a party on a boat cruising the Mediterranean. The combination of jet lag, booze, and choppy seas made some guests sick. As they leaned over the rail, one of our high-level government hosts came over to me and drunkenly mused he hoped they weren't puking on one of their nuclear subs. He winked and lurched off. And the host's country... was Israel. McNALLY He was talking about nuclear-powered subs. ALEXANDER Israeli subs are diesel-powered. HUTCHINSON Guy was drunk. SLIGER Israel's nuclear capability's been an open secret for years. Why would they perform a test now? RUSSELL Getting nuclear warheads on submarine-based missiles requires miniaturization technology that could need to be tested. SLIGER 'Could'... BARTLET I know. That's not a word your fond of at Langley. Let the man talk. RUSSELL Israel's been developing advanced fusion-boosted technology. This technology is extremely difficult and requires testing to produce warheads that are capable of being shrunk to the size needed to be placed on submarine-based cruise missiles. BARTLET Where are the bombers, General? ALEXANDER Three hours out of Missouri, sir. They'll be over their targets in Iran in 14 hours. BARTLET Tell the Israeli ambassador to get his Prime Minister on a plane. SLATTERY Yes, sir. BARTLET General. ALEXANDER Yes, sir? BARTLET Put a hold on the bombers. ALEXANDER Yes, sir. BARTLET Leo, Mr. Vice President. He indicates for them to follow him. He stands, as does everyone else. BARTLET Thank you, all. ALL Thank you, Mr. President. CUT TO: INT. - WHITE HOUSE - BASEMENT - HALLWAY - NIGHT Bartlet, Leo, and Russell are walking through the hall. LEO We'll need a cover story for the visit. BARTLET Brief Toby. Have him get with C.J. right away. Thank you, Bob. RUSSELL I'm, uh, I'm sure Leo's wondering how it is I know so much about all this. You know all those jokes about me being the Congressman from Western Colorado Mining. Colorado Plateau is this country's leading source of uranium. Good night, Mr. President. Leo. He turns and leaves. Leo and Bartlet head up the stairs toward their offices. FADE OUT. END ACT THREE. * * * ACT FOUR FADE IN: EXT. - DC STREET - OUTSIDE APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Alex's SUV pulls up to the curb outside the building. CUT TO: INT. - CAR - CONTINUOUS Alex puts the car in park. JOSH Okay it's not going to happen, but tell me about going to Mars. MOREAU Right here? Josh reaches over, stops the car, and takes the keys. MOREAU The plan is called Mars Direct. JOSH What'll it cost? MOREAU $30, $40 billion. Josh scoffs. MOREAU Over ten years. It's the cost of one weapon's system. JOSH Go on. MOREAU We launch a crew directly there, like we went to the Moon, and use the resources there to make the fuel to get back. JOSH Is that doable? MOREAU It's 19th century chemistry. It's all doable now. All we lack is the ambition and political will. CUT TO: EXT. - WHITE HOUSE - DAY FRIDAY 7:26 AM CUT TO: INT. - WHITE HOUSE LOBBY - DAY Toby and C.J. are walking. TOBY The Israeli Prime Minister is flying in today to discuss their new settlement activity. C.J. You mean the thing you had me shrug off yesterday as a non-story? TOBY That was yesterday. C.J. I'm trying to decide if I'm gullible, an idiot, or being completely kept out of the loop. TOBY Yeah. Toby walks off. CUT TO: INT. - VICE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - DAY Russell is seated and Will is standing. They are talking. WILL Mr. Vice President. RUSSELL I've been thinking about this good government thing. WILL You should speak directly to the President about your reasons for not going along. RUSSELL No, I'm gonna do their bidding on this. WILL Due respect, it's not a serious policy brief. You have to get the West Wing to start treating you with more respect. RUSSELL I'm a team player. I do what's asked. And, Will, for the record, I'm not worried about having the President's respect. CUT TO: INT. - OVAL OFFICE - DAY Bartlet is seated at his desk and he is signing some papers. Charlie is standing behind him and he takes the papers as Bartlet hands them to him. BARTLET Thanks for your concern yesterday. CHARLIE Did you get some sleep, sir? BARTLET Not much. He continues signing papers. BARTLET Some terrible choices have had to be made in this room, none more agonizing that Hiroshima and Nagasaki. CHARLIE I can't imagine. BARTLET When you sit here, you have to. He gets up, holding the book he was reading earlier in his hands, and walks over and puts it on his bookshelf. CHARLIE Would you have made the same decision Truman made? BARTLET On Okinawa, the Japanese knew they couldn't win, so they just tried to kill as many Americans as possible. There were 110,000 Japanese troops and nearly a quarter of a million people died there, including Japanese civilians. To defend Japan itself, they would have mobilized two and a half million, with a civilian militia of 30 million more pressed into service just to die for the emperor. CHARLIE So, you could claim the bombings actually saved lives. BARTLET That's one argument. The other is that after Potsdam Truman wanted Stalin to know we had the bomb and we were willing to use it. CHARLIE But would you have done it, sir? CUT TO: INT. - JOSH'S OFFICE - DAY Josh is sitting at his desk and he is flipping through the pages of a book. JOSH [yelling] Donna! DONNA [calmly] Yes. Josh looks up and sees her standing in the doorway. JOSH How long have you been there? DONNA Long enough. JOSH Uh... I need a breakdown of NASA funding as a percentage of discretionary spending in five year increments starting in 1969. Hey, you want to hear something cool? Voyager I just crossed the termination shock eight billion miles away. First human-made object to leave the solar system. DONNA Funny, I'm going through a little termination shock myself. JOSH What? DONNA Suddenly this consuming interest in space just because some NASA administrator batted eyes at you? JOSH You hate that I'm interested in this. DONNA What was your first hint? JOSH That's perfect. Sit down. Sit. I need to play out an argument. She sits down in front of his desk. JOSH Everyone hates us. DONNA Inspiring start. JOSH We're the most dominant nation on earth. But too often the face of our economic superiority... CUT TO: EXT. - WHITE HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - DAY We see a VIP motorcade pulling up to the doors as Josh's voice can still be heard. JOSH [VO][cont.] ... is a corporate imperialism, our technological dominance shown by Smart bombs and Predator drones. We could do something else. Something generous and uplifting for all humankind. We see someone open the door of one of the limos and we see a pair of feet step out. CUT TO: INT. - JOSH'S OFFICE - DAY JOSH [cont.] We could send the first representatives from Earth, to walk on another planet. We could land people on Mars. CUT TO: INT. - HALLWAY - LOBBY - DAY We see the Israeli Prime Minister and his entourage walking through the hallway. CUT TO: INT. - JOSH'S OFFICE - DAY JOSH Needs work. DONNA Needs something. Donna gets up from her seat. JOSH Yeah, that inspiration thing. He gets up from his seat. JOSH Voyager, in case it's ever encountered by extra-terrestrials... CUT TO: INT. - OUTER OVAL OFFICE - DAY We see the Prime Minister walk into the Oval Office. Bartlet and Leo are waiting for him. Bartlet greets him when he walks in. JOSH [VO] [cont.] ... is carrying photos of life on Earth, greetings in 55 languages... BARTLET Prime Minister, thank you for coming. JOSH [VO][cont.] ... and a collection of music from Gregorian chants to Chuck Berry. Including... We see Leo and the Prime Minister shake hands. CUT TO: INT. - JOSH'S OFFICE - DAY JOSH [cont.] ... "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" by '20s bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, whose stepmother blinded him when he was seven by throwing lye in is his eyes after his father had beat her for being with another man. He died, penniless, of pneumonia after sleeping bundled in wet newspapers in the ruins of his house that burned down. But his music just left the solar system. DONNA Okay, that got me. She walks out of the office. CUT TO: INT. - OVAL OFFICE - DAY Bartlet and the Prime Minister sit down across from each other. BARTLET Thank you for coming, Mr. Prime Minister. You've had a long flight and I've had a long last day and a half. Let's not waste any time with veiled questions and coy answers. Your government conducted a atmospheric nuclear test over the Indian Ocean 36 hours ago. This action poses enormous problems for the region, for the world. PRIME MINISTER And for the U.S. BARTLET Yes. It undercuts our counterproliferation policy and makes us look at best, biased, and at worst, like outright hypocrites. PRIME MINISTER You do not look hypocritical espousing nonproliferation while funding research on a new generation of tactical nuclear bombs? This is not my view. The U.S. is merely looking after its national interest. As Israel has the right to do. BARTLET Proliferation breeds proliferation. China's bomb produced India's. India's begat Pakistan's. PRIME MINISTER The United States' ideal number of nuclear weapon states is one. No matter if it's merited or arrogant, it is irrelevant. Our chief of Military Intelligence asserts that if Iran completes its enrichment program it will be able to produce nuclear weapons within one year. BARTLET No one disputes Israel lives under threat. PRIME MINISTER Threat? We are 6 million surrounded by 200 million who wish us obliterated. For Israel, deterrence is not an option, but an imperative. BARTLET There's a fine line between deterrence and provocation. PRIME MINISTER We model our approach on America's during the Cold War: Mutual Assured Destruction. BARTLET There's a reason its acronym was MAD. PRIME MINISTER It succeeded entirely in keeping the world safe. Iran will become a nuclear state. I mean, what difference if it takes one year or five or ten? What difference? BARTLET We can stop them. By force if it comes to that. PRIME MINISTER But should this fail, all that would stand in the way of an Iranian first strike is an assured second-strike capability. Submarines armed with nuclear missiles. Mr. President, this is essential for Israel's survival. BARTLET Your argument boils down to asking the world to trust you. PRIME MINISTER As does America's. BARTLET It's telling that the physicists involved in the creation of these weapons became the most fervid opponents of their use. Einstein, Oppenheimer, Szilard. Hans Bethe wrote: "If we fight a war and win it with H-bombs, what history will remember is not the ideas we were fighting for, but the methods we used to accomplish them. These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan, who brutally killed every last inhabitant of Persia." CUT TO: INT. - LEO'S OFFICE - NIGHT Leo is standing as Toby walks in. TOBY Hey. LEO It's over. It was the Israelis. The bombers have turned back. TOBY It's a hell of a dress rehearsal. This is our plan. This is our nuanced, reasoned... we bomb, then they nuke, then we nuke. This is the best we've gamed this out? The fate of the world just hung on a Bing Bob brainstorm. You want to live by those odds? LEO As opposed to sanctions, inspections and never-ending talks while a Hezbollah martyr leads a donkey cart packed with plutonium smack into downtown Tel Aviv. TOBY It's not over. And we need a better plan. Toby walks out of the office. CUT TO: INT. - JOSH'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Josh is sitting in a recliner listening to some music when we hear the doorbell buzz. He gets up and answers the door. No one is there but we see that someone has left a smaller telescope than the one he and Alex used outside his doorstep with a bow stuck on top. CUT TO: EXT. - DC STREET - NEAR CAPITOL BUILDING - NIGHT With the Capitol building in view, we see Josh set his telescope up and peer through it at the stars. CUT TO: INT. - SITUATION ROOM - NIGHT Several people are seated at the table. They stand as Bartlet comes in. He motions for them to sit back down. He walks over and looks at the map. CUT TO: EXT. - DC STREET - NEAR CAPITOL BUILDING - NIGHT We again see Josh staring through his telescope. CUT TO: INT. - SITUATION ROOM - NIGHT Bartlet walks over to one of the screens showing the region and the replay of the detonation. We see a deeply reflective look on his face as we... DISSOLVE TO: END TITLES. FADE TO BLACK. THE END. * * * The West Wing episode 5.13 "The Warfare of Genghis Khan", original air date 11 February, 2004.