George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 31

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If you asked me to name the person I’m most uncomfortable with, I would unhesitatingly choose the Bush family. And if I had to pick two in particular, it would be none other than Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, and Bush’s wife, Laura Bush.

No, think about it. Going to Father Bush and saying,

‘Hehe. I really like this body. It’s very stable.’ I can’t do that, can I?

It’s great that I went from being just another Joe Schmoe to suddenly enjoying all sorts of wealth and glory, but what am I supposed to do about this? I’ve been deliberately avoiding them, but I can’t keep doing that forever.

Wow, come to think of it, I’ve never even been married, and now I’m suddenly taking on responsibility without any pleasure?

‘Damn it.’

But I can’t refuse it here.

「Honey?」

Damn it, this was the biggest problem. Unknowingly, feelings of intimacy and stability were welling up inside me. I hated this feeling the most. It’s like I’m a teenage boy avoiding his parents, what the hell is going on? My throat was so choked up that I couldn’t even say the simple greeting, ‘Hello?’

「Hello? Honey? Is the reception bad?」

“No! I can hear you! What’s wrong?”

「Honey, you’re not drinking again, are you?」

It goes without saying, but the person who ‘killed’ the alcoholic George Bush was none other than Laura Bush. [Implied: She was the reason he stopped drinking, not literally killed him.]

“No, what do you mean alcohol! I’m just drinking cola. It’s been a month since I touched alcohol! You can ask the chief of staff.”

Come to think of it, it’s been a month since I took over this body. Time flies.

「Hehe, I hear that all the time.」

All the time? All the time?

‘Is this guy…?’

I glared at the chief of staff. It was the most benevolent expression I had ever seen on the chief of staff’s face. Of course, to me, it was an expression that gathered all the crap in the world, so hard to find even if you searched every corner of the globe.

‘You’re dead later.’

「You seem very energetic these days. I guess the president’s job suits you well?」

“Y-yeah! Of course!”

「I’m really glad you seem energetic. Then I trust you remember that today is the day we were supposed to have dinner together.」

Hic.

「Don’t forget. Okay?」

“Uh, wait a minute. I’m sure I had a schedule then-.”

But it was too late, and only the heartless disconnect tone was ringing from the cell phone.

When I came to my senses, I was being carried like luggage in a car to the dinner appointment.

* * *

When the world is limited to East Asia, the person who took on the most difficult country to govern was none other than Junichiro Koizumi.

“Damn it!”

He was well aware that Japan was a mess, but once he became prime minister, he realized that the extent was on a different level from what he saw from the outside.

Junichiro Koizumi sighed.

The lost decade. Does 10 years matter? 2001 was a terrible year for any country in Asia, whether they liked it or not. South Korea was barely catching its breath after escaping the 1997 financial crisis, and Thailand and Indonesia were still struggling.

Japan was lucky. It would be difficult to see the brilliant light of the 80s again, but Japan’s 80s left many legacies to the current generation. They were legacies like rusty relics, but without that legacy, Japan’s hegemony would have been impossible.

Japan was emerging from the double whammy of the bubble economy and the Asian financial crisis, but in the third millennium, the IT bubble caught its ankle. Japan was still in a recession, with abandoned houses that had not yet been demolished and rusty old cars that had collapsed on the streets.

“Taro Aso, you stupid bastard…!”

Taro Aso was the current chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council. That’s not to say he wasn’t capable. Except for the occasional slip of the tongue, he had the strongest backing and family within the LDP [Liberal Democratic Party], and he was a man who could always strike and rise to the position of prime minister.

His position was still very solid, but wasn’t the prime minister’s seat something that could be shaken in an instant?

Well, he could give up the prime minister’s seat, but the problem was that the moment this guy went up, it was obvious that Japan would fall into the abyss.

As the prime minister of Japan leading the recession and the person who will lead this era, I dare to say that the 21st century will be more terrible than the Cold War.

Democracy and capitalism have completely pushed out communism, and the United States has become the world’s leading superpower, but are democracy and capitalism the same democracy and capitalism? As if looking at martial arts schools, there were all kinds of derivatives of democracy, and the direction of capitalism also changed significantly depending on who wielded it.

Japanese-style democracy was in fact a feudal system disguised as democracy. Until now, the people have no idea that this is a feudal system, but the moment the bread and circuses [basic necessities and entertainment] that the government distributes are not enough, they will realize it in an instant.

It’s a right-wing policy for that, but Koizumi didn’t think the right-wing policy was a very good policy. Moderate right-wingism is on the extension of nationalism, so you can be proud of your ethnicity. This itself is a policy that works in any country, but it had a slightly different meaning in Japan.

A return to the myth of invincibility! To the golden age of the 80s!

If you go back to the roots of Japan’s right-wingism, what lies at its origin is the lingering image and traces of the old Japanese Empire. However, that era ended with two atomic bombs dropped from Enola Gay, but thankfully, a war broke out in the neighborhood, allowing them to recover. In the 80s, wherever you went in the world, Japanese products were the best in the world, and Japan was undeniably the strongest country in the world at that time, to the point where people were saying, ‘Sell Japan and buy America.’

In other words, it was ‘national뽕(exaggerated patriotism)’.

The idea of ​​subduing the people’s dissatisfaction with national뽕, drawing out pride, and creating a strong Japan was fine in itself.

The problem was the moment it went too far. National뽕 should only be a means of subduing dissatisfaction and establishing ethnicity, and if it goes up to the brain, which can be said to be the brain of the country, it is just a cerebral infarction. Cerebral infarction. [Implied: Overzealous patriotism can lead to disastrous decisions.]

The only thing Japan, which has turned into a stroke patient, can do is run wild on its own, start a war with another country in some way, and self-destruct. Unlike the turbulent 19th and 20th centuries, there is not a single easy country in East Asia in the 21st century.

‘If the right-wing policy is properly started, I have to cut it off somehow in my generation.’

Right-wingism is still in the preparation stage. To move properly, the government had to actively push it.

“Still, I’m uneasy.”

The beginning of the 21st century was not an era of cold war, but an era of hot war. Iraq was divided into east and west, and European and Russian troops were betting on who would catch al-Zarqawi first.

However, Koizumi was predicting Russia as the winner of this tag game. Russia’s search operation was qualitatively different from that of Europe. In fact, it was closer to a suppression operation than a search operation. Considering the experience and years of experience accumulated through the Chechen War, it was only natural that Russia would be the winner.

The problem is that they’re even harassing innocent Saudi Arabia. Still, even a bear with crazy eyes seemed to be nervous about the largest oil-producing country, so they were urging Saudi Arabia to start a war with terrorists on its own.

What Koizumi fears most right now is that the flames of this war will reach Southeast Asia. Like the Middle East, Islam was the most popular in Southeast Asia, and terrorism did occur. The frequency was extremely low compared to the Middle East, but it did exist. What if they suddenly go crazy and cause a terrorist attack in Japan?

‘Just imagining it is terrible!’

Even if Japanese people, who have no experience in preventing terrorism, try hard to prevent terrorism, it will be useless, so it would be better to borrow the power of foreign countries. Among them, there was only one country that was almost perfectly preventing terrorism.

“I need to talk to the President of America.”

* * *

When Kim Ji-hoon was young, South Korea was a canary. The owner, a cat, and a canary live in the same house. The cat vents its stress on the seemingly easy-going bird.

The owner is America. The hamster was Japan.

Although the situation has improved a lot now, and the difference is about the difference between a dog and a wolf, the reality is that it is still far from enough. However, the belief that he would become a tiger in the near future, catch up with Japan, and eventually smash its head was not blurred.

That young Kim Ji-hoon is now old and has become the 15th President of South Korea.

President Kim Ji-hoon stared blankly at the Nobel Peace Prize displayed in the cabinet, then overlapped his face on the glass.

It hasn’t even been a year since he received the Nobel Prize, but it was already fading.

‘Ji-hoon, Ji-hoon. What is peace all about?’

The inter-Korean summit was rolling around here, and the media and public opinion were on a path of reconciliation, but that was only public opinion. President Kim Ji-hoon instinctively sensed that they were taking a position of 구밀복검(outwardly compliant but inwardly plotting).

‘Peaceful reunification? Huh, why don’t you take the murderous intent out of your eyes and talk? I’m going to suck out all the ink from Kim Jong-il’s 동태눈깔(dead fish eyes).’ (TN: 동태 is a frozen pollack, often used to describe someone with lifeless eyes.)

He was struggling with the hastily created peace line. He could just step down as he was, but he couldn’t step down with only dreams and hopes inflated. He had to solve it in some way in his generation. But he didn’t want Koreans to point guns and knives at each other like in the Korean War.

“After all, is the answer North Korea support?”

Made in South Korea!

If the people of North Korea come into contact with South Korean culture, they will also change their minds. Then, like the Soviet Union, it will collapse on its own and open its doors. Then, from a favorable diplomatic high ground, I will show you the taste of capitalist unification.

In fact, the word ‘diplomatic’ was also a very funny word. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, North Korea was classified as a terrorist group.

“Anyway, the world situation is definitely a problem.”

Now that the Cold War was over, it was now a hot war. The Middle East was going crazy and oil prices were going crazy. It’s high one day and low the next. Isn’t this completely crazy?

Of course, European countries were trying not to touch Saudi Arabia, the largest oil-producing country, as much as possible, but Russia was moving in a truly amazing way. They said they were producing less because they were producing it. It was a truly frustrating thing. There is not a single oil field on this Korean peninsula. Damn it. No, there might be one in North Korea. At least there wasn’t one in South Korea. If it came out now after stirring it up so much, it would be an earth-shattering event.

‘Then at least there shouldn’t be a terrorist attack in Korea!’

Even if a terrorist comes out, it should come from Southeast Asia, not Korea. No one knows whether a terrorist is nesting in this Republic of Korea or not. There are enough Muslims in Korea. I wasn’t trying to commit a fallacy of generalization. It may not be now, but could they change like that?

As the old saying goes, you can know the depth of ten fathoms of water, but you can’t know the human heart.

“First of all, we need to strengthen surveillance. We need to strengthen airport security a little more.”

These two were measures that could be taken right away. However, if the system becomes solid and efficiency increases simply by harassing the lower organizations, the legislative, judicial, and executive branches must all bow their heads on the street and die. A clear model was needed to achieve this.

If we put in a request to the United States, they will take care of it and send it, but I felt the need for a closer international relationship than this. If a scenario such as ‘a Muslim terrorist of Korean nationality terrorizes Russia’ occurs, the only thing we can rely on right away is the United States. Of course, I knew that the possibility was very slim, but who would have expected 9/11?

“I need to talk to the President of the United States.”

* * *

George Bush, who heard this news while being detained at the meeting place, is said to have replied like this.

“Tell them I’m going myself.”

F-18 Super Hornet is coming!