George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 107

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The immigrant issue wasn’t just a European problem. As democracy and Islamic fundamentalism both gained traction in Iraq, the Middle East was inadvertently being thrown into turmoil.

The initial push for reform in the Middle East came from Afghanistan, but the effect was so subtle it barely registered. With Iraq destabilized, a wave of pro-democracy movements began to spread.

While democracy isn’t perfect, a democratic system, even one that only outwardly maintains appearances, is far better than Sharia law, which inherently violates women’s rights and imposes extreme, life-threatening punishments.

Democracy can devolve into a dictatorship resembling collusion among the three branches of government rather than a separation of powers, especially when those in power fail to uphold even basic standards. However, isn’t it a greater failing to not even try because of perceived obstacles?

Of course, this alone wouldn’t spark widespread protests. In a democracy, protests are expected, but in countries like Syria, they were impossible and illegal.

With flogging as a standard punishment and the ever-present threat of stoning, who would dare to protest? Paradoxically, protesters were willing to risk severe torture by the government. The reasons for these protests, despite the near certainty of death, were as follows:

The biggest issue was skyrocketing food prices. Imagine food prices suddenly tripling. Initially, you might wonder, “Is the country collapsing?” or “Is the government insane?” But if that situation persists for a month, two months, and prices remain three times higher, what would you think if they rose even further the next month?

At this point, reactions typically fall into three categories:

First, “Escape abroad.”

Second, “Go out and protest.”

Third, “We’re all going to die anyway.”

The first group became illegal immigrants, the second protesters, and the third petty criminals. In rare cases, some criminals saw the crisis as an opportunity, exploiting the absence of public authority and the chaos in the streets for profit, but this was uncommon.

Even criminals were fleeing abroad, lamenting that they couldn’t live in such a country! Considering these were people already living on the fringes of society, it was truly remarkable.

Next was the crumbling infrastructure. Infrastructure, simply put, is social overhead capital. For a society to function, economic activity is essential, and for the economy to function, factories must operate. Infrastructure indirectly supports the operation of direct capital, such as factories.

To rephrase, it’s the ‘capital’ needed ‘indirectly’ for ‘society’ to function.

Specifically, this includes roads, railways, and water supply. It generally refers to public works and broadly includes schools and hospitals. Without adequate indirect capital, direct capital cannot function properly.

If direct capital doesn’t function? At best, factories operate at a loss; at worst, they shut down entirely. Workers don’t get paid, and those without income struggle to survive. They incur debts to avoid starvation and eventually end up on the streets, overwhelmed by debt.

In any case, protests in countries where people risk their lives occur because they feel they are truly going to starve to death. Shouldn’t they at least fight before they die?

Initially, small-scale candlelight vigils erupted almost simultaneously across Syria, soon escalating into clashes with the military and police, who viewed this as a rebellion, causing intense conflict.

“Allah!”

“Aaaagh! My arm!”

The peaceful protests, initially focused on advocating for democracy, soon turned violent, with Molotov cocktails being thrown.

“As of this moment, this situation is defined as a ‘riot,’ and everyone present is considered a ‘reactionary’! Commence indiscriminate firing!”

“Those bastards are shooting!”

“You sons of bitches of the state! What kind of army shoots at its own people!”

During the confrontation, a shooting war erupted due to some incident. In reality, the term ‘shooting war’ was misleading, as the military was unilaterally firing. Soldiers and armored vehicles advanced mercilessly, and the people became blood, the nourishment of democracy, at the hands of the oppressors.

Who said the tree of democracy grows by feeding on the blood of the people? However, even the tree of democracy is still a tree, so even if it’s cut down, it has roots that can grow again and make a comeback. But if you eradicate the roots and sprinkle salt on the soil, nothing can grow in that place until the salt is gone.

“The owner of the country is not the dictator but the people!”

“Charge! For the glory of the Republic!”

In any case, the Syrian government thought that if sprinkling salt wasn’t enough, they could sprinkle biochemical weapons or radiation, but this was only half right.

What they got right was that the protests demanding democracy disappeared when they started suppressing them with force, and what they got wrong was that they didn’t crush them by stomping on them, as the government thought, but they voluntarily evaporated.

In the form of ‘refugees.’

“I can’t live here anymore. I’m leaving!”

Hundreds and thousands of refugees flowed into the Western world, soon reaching tens of thousands and then millions. This was because such protests were no longer limited to Syria.

“Help! Asking for help? While demanding that Germany amend its constitution to conform to Sharia [Islamic law]? Are these guys completely insane!”

No matter how good the welfare and public safety of a foreign country may be, it is never an easy place to live. Why else would homesickness exist? No matter how much gold and jewels you wear and how many delicacies you eat, the only place to return is home.

But you really can’t go back home, can you? Because home is no longer like home. But if you ask if foreign countries are comfortable, that’s not the case either. Conflicts arising from cultural differences were severe, especially the cultural differences as opposite as water and oil, such as halal [permissible] and haram [forbidden], unconsciously appealed to themselves that they needed something that could be called home.

So what they chose was another protest.

However, not all immigrants from the Middle East went west. Sometimes they moved east. That place was Afghanistan, the crossroads and intersection of civilizations.

“W, we can’t handle this future! This is beyond what we can handle!”

President Mohammad, having finished his calculations, jumped up from his seat. He was so flustered that he didn’t even care that the reports piled on his desk fell to the floor and his cherished writing instrument rolled into the corner of his office.

The number of refugees flowing in from the Middle East was increasing, and it had long surpassed what the nascent Afghanistan could handle. Afghanistan, with American capital, had just begun to build proper infrastructure and was in the process of correcting the people’s perceptions from the outdated ideologies left by the Taliban.

Therefore, intervention from outside, except for the United States, was not welcome at all. It seemed like they had received diplomatic documents from most countries in the Middle East, demanding the return of their rebels at least once. Recently, email bombs are trending online, and he felt like this was what it felt like to be hit by one.

“I, if we send a letter to the United States, even if it’s a crazy thing, the President of the United States can solve it.”

Fortunately, the strongest country in the world and the largest economy was backing Afghanistan. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was a country that arose solely on the goodwill of the US President. They needed US support for at least 8 years, or at least 5 years at the lowest estimate.

During that period, if the US President was replaced by someone else or if they offended his feelings, the country itself might disappear. That’s why they don’t prohibit excessive pro-Americanism or the idolization of the US President, but rather encourage it. They judged that if they showed this much interest, even if the president changed, he would reluctantly help them a few times.

“Goodness, it’s already surpassed one hundred thousand. At this rate, they’ll build an autonomous region.”

Syria was at least a case that ended completely, and there were already three countries where the confrontation between protesters and the government had escalated into civil war. Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan.

Jordan was unlucky enough to be right next to western Iraq, and since it was a gateway that had to be passed to go west, it naturally demanded democracy due to the immigrants flowing out of western Iraq. But the Jordanian government wasn’t going to stand idly by. Even their slogan openly states God, Country, King.

That’s right. It’s a country where sovereignty doesn’t belong to the people. How could protests not arise?

Kuwait was the same. Its immediate neighbor was Iraq, and it was a absolute monarchy disguised as a constitutional monarchy. This wouldn’t have been a problem, but as oil prices fluctuated erratically due to American machinations, and they tried to reduce welfare and increase military spending, backlash erupted from the people.

Rebellion that would normally have ended with word of mouth or the formation of a simple underground organization, the people demanded the introduction of democracy as the neighboring country introduced democracy and, at least on the surface, took off. In fact, the main purpose was to overthrow the government because it was doing politics so terribly, rather than introducing democracy.

In the case of Qatar, unlike the two rationally run cases, a civil war broke out for a slightly absurd reason. Qatar was one of the few countries in the Middle East where at least people could live. At least it was a country where you could earn a living with one meal a day.

Because of that, even if they cursed, the atmosphere was quite different from Syria and Kuwait, where food and essential goods prices were going crazy. The Qatar civil war began when Islamic fundamentalist terrorists destroyed Qatar’s oil refining and drilling facilities.

Even when the oil refining facilities caught fire, it was treated as just another terrorist incident, but the fact that most of Qatar’s imports depended on oil was a big problem.

Initially, it was a dispute between workers at the oil refining facilities. When it was determined that it would be impossible to maintain the scale during the reconstruction project, ‘some’ were laid off and became unemployed overnight, and former colleagues made fun of them.

The unemployed needed new jobs, and the terrorists, who were extremely short of manpower, recruited them. The terrorists brutally murdered their former colleagues who had made fun of them and posted it on the internet.

It was too appropriate to attract the attention of the European Union and Russia, who were still crazy because al-Zarqawi had not been caught, and Qatar, and a terrorist suppression operation was launched in Qatar. The problem was that the terrorists were somewhat connected to the government’s dark side, so they essentially self-destructed.

It goes without saying that the source of the weapons the terrorists were carrying was also Qatar army equipment. That’s how some aspiring figures of power revolted, saying they could no longer tolerate the government’s atrocities. The only slight problem was that those who couldn’t tolerate the atrocities were the main culprits behind supporting the terrorists.

That’s how a civil war broke out to cover up their mistakes.

“The Middle East is going crazy.”

It took twenty failures to create a diplomatic document that looked clean at a glance.

“This isn’t it!”

However, the President of Afghanistan, feeling that it was only clean and lacked appeal, crumpled even that. A clean one is right for a general diplomatic document, but this was something closer to a personal letter or request from the beginning. Therefore, something that would stimulate emotions was needed rather than cleanliness.

“The first line, yes. This will be good.”

Very directly.

「Dear Mr. President of the United States, please save me.」