George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 114

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“I heard the worst part of working is eating dinner at work.”

“Isn’t that what all presidents do anyway?”

“Middle East trends. Just came in.”

‘Just came in’ meant that no other country besides those involved had obtained the information. Of course, it also meant the information hadn’t hit the news yet.

‘Wow, is Grand Maison going to claim he was right and crawl out of his coffin?’

Grand Maison was the Director of Education at the French Army Headquarters during World War I, and the originator of the ‘Élan Vital battle doctrine’ [a military strategy emphasizing offensive spirit], which France endlessly criticized and Europe mocked to the bone. It meant maintaining only offense, which in elegant professional terms is also called ‘charge’ or ‘attack-move.’

In short, it was a doctrine of simply fixing bayonets and charging the front lines. Of course, it didn’t work well, and the French Grand Army was ground down under trenches and machine guns, and the earth became fertile after consuming the blood of 600,000 men.

“And it’s working?”

“Since the area that became the battlefield was in charge of reconnaissance missions for several months, they were thoroughly familiar with every nook and cranny, allowing them to repeat guerrilla strikes relatively easily. Plus, there’s the added factor of urban warfare.”

“But the fundamental difference in numbers can’t be solved.”

“Their guerrilla tactics are quite unique.”

The Chief of Staff handed over a new document. It was a kind of transcript, testimonies from survivors. They were unilaterally massacred, so they were survivors in name only. Anyway, the more you read, the stranger it got.

“Exploding gas pipes exposed by ground subsidence, wiping out squads from underground sewers by collapsing the ground. Restricting visibility with sprinklers inside buildings and suppressing. Setting fire to supplies and blowing them up with RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] when they gather.”

Easy to say. How could a mere reconnaissance squad, not even a special forces unit, bring such destruction?

“How could they figure out the underground tunnels? Where did they get the explosives?”

“It’s written that their mission was to search for al-Zarqawi [a Jordanian jihadist who led al-Qaeda in Iraq], so they roamed all over the city. And they acquired the explosives from terrorists, but more than anything, they seem to have become experts in handling explosives from dealing with them every day.”

‘Acquired, my ass, they looted them, didn’t they? Is this the French army or the Mongol army? Or some game protagonist?’

“If all the soldiers were like that, there wouldn’t be any terrorists left in the Middle East.”

“Not everyone is like that. The EU forces are seeing at least 20 deaths or injuries every week. The number of civilian casualties is even higher. Equipment damage is recording losses of tens of millions of dollars a day.”

Still, because they were packaging the war on terror as a holy war, there wasn’t much outcry from the public. Moreover, the scars that al-Qaeda left on Europe, both material and emotional, couldn’t be healed in just one or two years, so Europeans turned a blind eye to the damage coming from the Middle East.

“So, these guys were extremely unusual?”

“That’s right. It’s a miracle made possible by layers upon layers of uniqueness. Frankly, even deploying a decent special forces unit would be difficult to achieve that level. Anyway, it’s a heroic tale that the media would love.”

“By the way, how can there be so many terrorists when we’ve been carrying out such sweeping operations? I mean, shouldn’t they be hiding underground after being harassed this much? Or at least lying low for a while. This is too blatant.”

“Around page 192 of the Middle East Trends Report addresses that, but it seems that East Iraq is actively intervening.”

Bush, hearing that, opened to page 192, which was filled with dense intelligence reports. The most crucial information was that East Iraq was massively investing some of the funds received from Russia into a terrorist training project.

“This doesn’t seem like Russia’s intention.”

“They probably just want to extract oil, regardless of terrorists. It seems they’ll be abandoned at the appropriate time. Moreover, in reality, it’s not so much Russian funds as it is oil money from oil drilled in northern Iraq.”

“So, they’re a white elephant, too bothersome to keep but too good to throw away. But is the support they’re getting that significant?”

“Unlike normal countries, East Iraq has almost no place to spend money. I heard they’re planning to cut off the water supply soon and make people dig wells. Next, they’ll cut off electricity.”

“It’s driving me crazy. Do they want to return to the Stone Age?”

“Maybe they do. At least, based on their actions so far, the probability is very high.”

“Listening to it, it sounds like some end-of-the-world cult.”

“Their actions aren’t too far off. Aren’t they building the world’s largest mosque in the capital? The story of neglecting decaying infrastructure and human rights while building a massive religious structure is something you’d only hear at the end of the world.”

“A massive structure, huh.”

“You’re not thinking of building a skyscraper, are you? I don’t believe in superstitions, but the curse of the skyscraper is a bit unsettling, isn’t it?”

The skyscraper curse is an economic theory popularized by Andrew Lawrence, which suggests that skyscraper construction often precedes economic downturns. You don’t have to go far; the Empire State Building in New York was like that. It was completed in 1931 but was hit directly by the Great Depression and remained just an empty concrete building until the end of World War II.

“Of course not. I don’t particularly want to build one. It’s just that East Iraq seems to be aiming to build the world’s largest building, and I thought even just giving them a simple ‘paper plan’ would amuse the East Iraqi government.”

“That sounds fun. I’ll try to push it forward. But will they willingly spend more just by hearing about it? Even with just the scale, East Iraq would have to squander all its assets.”

“Rational and emotional judgments are always inconsistent. Besides, we have nothing to lose if it fails.”

“At that point, they might start hating the mosque they’re building.”

Making people who are all about religion hate a religious building is truly cruel. Perhaps they might condemn the extravagant and overgrown mosque that has impoverished their lives and aim for a more passive life. But nothing would change.

“Enough about the Middle East, how’s Europe?”

“Europe is always complicated. It’s tied together by the giant fence called the EU now, but when wasn’t it?”

From Roman times to the Holy Roman Empire, Europe had been diligently tied together, whether by force or by choice, but had never truly united. At least the EU was showing efforts to somehow connect with each other, but even looking at the Eurofighter [a multirole fighter aircraft], things were a mess due to each country’s circumstances, weren’t they?

At least the EU was a compromise made to stop Europeans from fighting each other. But the irony is that the Allied forces defeated Germany, the leader of the Axis powers, but the very Germany they defeated is now playing the leader role in the EU. What could be more ironic than this? The Allied forces took a partial victory, but Germany took an overall victory.

“Anyway, the common thing is that the Middle East refugee problem is serious. It’s exceeding the level that Europe can handle without bloodshed. To solve the refugee problem, they’ll have to go through considerable trial and error politically and economically.”

“Or make the Middle East peaceful. Refugees are their own karma. Europe is the reason why the Middle East is in this mess.”

It’s like a tree. The seed of conflict grows, and it’s a problem for the entire Middle East, and even narrowing the focus to Iraq, it’s similar. Instead of just claiming and packaging that a free government has been established, they should have either established a trusteeship or, if not, trained the army for a sufficient amount of time, entrusted it to the locals, and withdrawn the peacekeeping forces.

But the EU seems to be thinking of projecting influence in the Middle East permanently, as they don’t seem to want to withdraw their troops. In short, the EU hasn’t seen enough blood yet.

“Well, if they continue to suppress terrorists with such overwhelming force, West Iraq might at least fall to a normal level someday.”

One of the reasons why the United States ultimately failed in the Iraq War was ‘not enough occupying forces.’ On the other hand, although the connection is still loose, the EU forces drawn from each country were numerous. Moreover, they were resolving that loose connection to some extent by conducting joint training almost every day in West Iraq. Astronomical amounts of budget were being invested here, but it was a natural expenditure for the maintenance of the EU and the future of the European integrated forces.

“Actually, that’s not entirely true.”

“Why?”

“If it were a normal terrorist group, it would be as the President said, but their base is in East Iraq.”

It’s too obvious, but there’s a reason why pest control companies find and destroy the root. It’s the same with terrorists; if the base is alive, they’ll pop up again from somewhere.

“I see. So, this report is terribly thick, but excluding the economic part, it ultimately means they’re pouring all their strength into the Middle East? Al-Qaeda has tied together a divided Europe?”

“Aren’t you skimming too much?”

“Isn’t that the truth? Even when I try to talk about Europe, I end up going back to the Middle East.”

“That’s true, but aren’t you reading too superficially? For example, oil prices are falling due to increased Brent oil production.”

“I need to read it again sometime. But to continue the story, I have to skim it once anyway. But I don’t think much will change.”

Still, I’ve been sitting in this position for a while, so I can roughly tell what’s what just by reading the table of contents. Of course, I’d have to read the details to know for sure, but if you grasp the whole picture, don’t you get a rough idea of what’s going on?

As expected, after spending several hours reading it in detail, almost nothing was turning out differently from what I had thought.

“President Chester Arthur said he didn’t know how tiring it would be to make the workplace his home, but now that I’m experiencing it, it’s not that bad. Or have I not been president long enough yet?”

You wouldn’t know how proud I am to have no documents on my desk.

“Then there’s another report for such a president!”

And you wouldn’t know how crushed I feel when a report is placed on that clean desk.

“On second thought, I think I’m too tired today!”

“Where are you going?”

“L-Let go of me! I haven’t even exercised today!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get some morning jogging.”