George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 153

< 152 >

Of course, in my heart, I wanted to shout, ‘I’ll buy it right away!’ How could I refuse when the U.S. was offering to sell its latest weapons? But unlike my heart, my lips wouldn’t open easily. The position of president required me to test even the most solid-looking stepping stones before crossing.

Think about it. It’s a product that hasn’t even been mass-produced yet. What if that THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] thing turned out to be defective? What if, hypothetically, it didn’t suit the Korean climate? Of course, if we were to actually introduce it, we would modify it to suit Korea.

“So, are you going to buy it or not?”

After much deliberation, President Kim Ji-hoon decided to give a positive answer for now. How often does such an opportunity come twice in a lifetime? It’s the latest weapon from the U.S., after all.

“Another deal has been struck.”

Of course, there would be competition with other air defense systems in the defense industry, but in the end, THAAD would emerge victorious. That’s just how national affairs work. How did the U.S. become wealthy? By selling weapons in large quantities when wars broke out in neighboring countries. The secret to a superpower was playing the role of a national arms dealer.

Now, the world was buying U.S.-made weapons to prepare for war or for political reasons, but the only thing that could stop U.S.-made weapons was U.S.-made weapons. Paradoxically, the only thing that could penetrate U.S.-made weapons was also U.S.-made weapons.

“Today is a very joyful day.”

It was the day the World Cup, a global festival, was being held, and it was also a day when Korea’s defense capabilities had greatly advanced. It was also a day when the U.S. sold goods to a loyal customer. The golden age of the U.S. military industry was accelerating.

“By the way, unification is not far off. Congratulations.”

It was a somewhat sudden remark, but President Kim Ji-hoon decided to just accept it. It wasn’t a particularly strange thing to say. However, since none of Bush’s congratulations had been trivial so far, President Kim Ji-hoon grew suspicious, wondering, ‘What on earth is that guy up to?’ But this time, it seemed to be a simple congratulation without any calculation of profit and loss.

“About 50 years after the armistice, the end of the division is finally in sight. Hahaha!”

Since Bush’s essence was what it was, this was quite a joyful thing. After this remark, Bush offered congratulations several times, and each time President Kim Ji-hoon received the congratulations, he sweated profusely, trying to grasp the hidden meaning in the nonexistent words.

While President Kim Ji-hoon was expending his energy, the opening ceremony began, and soon the speech time was approaching. The problem was that Bush had no intention of reciting the speech as it was.

“Let’s see.”

The speech was full of empty words, such as congratulating the Korea-Japan World Cup. He didn’t want to say the mere repetition of hollow, conventional words as they were. Of course, there was a nuance in the speech that made one guess, ‘The U.S. is very pleased that Korea-Japan relations have recovered!’

‘Truly terrible.’

How could a glorious ally utter such soulless and unsubstantial words on a festive day? Did he think that a man named George W. Bush would tolerate such a shoddy speech?

‘No! Absolutely not!’

Bush personally took a pen and began to cross out the words he didn’t like and engrave new words. It was truly unfortunate, but no one could stop him at the moment. The chief of staff in charge of the brakes was handling other diplomatic affairs.

“Shouldn’t we stop him?”

“Stop him? Who’s going to stop him? No, more than that, can we stop him? Do we have the right to stop him?”

The Korean personnel in the skybox were watching this, but who would dare to stop the U.S. president from doing what he was doing? No, before stopping him, would they even be able to talk to him? The five-minute speech, meticulously crafted by the most prominent genius officials in the United States, was thoroughly modified to Bush’s taste by his own hand.

“Awesome.”

Everyone in the room pretended not to hear, even though they knew what was happening. To be here meant they knew how to act to keep themselves safe. Pretending not to know was the most beneficial. All they could do was report to their president, but reporting wouldn’t change anything.

“Mr. President? It’s time to go up to the podium.”

Moreover, there wasn’t even a minute left until the speech. But Bush leisurely walked to the podium with composure. When he stepped onto the podium, the atmosphere, which had been chaotic until just now, changed to a solemn one, and all the attention that had been dispersed by the dazzling performances was focused on the podium.

Bush abruptly waved the speech in his hand. It was the result of the collective intelligence of the Bush administration.

“In the hands of this president is the speech written by my administration.”

Bush’s words were translated in real-time and echoed throughout the stadium. Everyone looked bewildered as the U.S. president, who they thought would just say some nice things and leave, started with a rather unique introduction, setting aside the main point.

“Hmm, to summarize, it says congratulations on the World Cup, and it’s very metaphorical in saying thank you for Korea and Japan getting along relatively well recently.”

No more, no less, what the hell was this nonsense? It was a cultural shock in itself to older people, those who had lived more than half their lives thoroughly based on Confucian ideals.

The way he gave the speech was closer to a comedian engaged in stand-up comedy than a president of a country. His very unconventional words and actions aroused interest from the audience and heightened the anxiety creeping up from behind among those involved.

The most anxious of all was the chief of staff. He could tell at once that the speech he had worked hard to review and revise all night had been completely ruined from the first word.

No matter how much the chief of staff regretted, ‘I should have stayed by his side, why did I forget this again,’ it was already too late, and the speech was completely flowing according to Bush’s will.

“I don’t like this part very much.”

With that, he threw the speech backward. It was a clear indication that he would not read it as planned. Of course, it goes without saying that the chief of staff grabbed the back of his head at the sight.

“Korea and Japan are in a relationship that is difficult to bridge in any way. It is clear from the national sentiment and government policies of both countries.”

President Kim Ji-hoon’s expression turned pale at that sound. To think that he was creating discord when he had barely established a peaceful path! What a terrible thing! All President Kim Ji-hoon could do now was to pray that President Bush would end this speech peacefully.

No, more than that, didn’t he say he would recite the speech as it was before the meal? What a liar! What change of heart did he have in that short gap to do this?

“‘Let’s forget the past and reconcile.’ This is what I hate the most. I have allocated more budget to history education and greatly increased funding for Native American support to not forget history. Because I thought that improving social awareness was the top priority to truly respect them.”

Although there were some problems in the reservation, such as unemployment, casino issues, and various outdated infrastructures, Bush believed that if society truly began to realize the problems, they would soon be resolved.

It was quite different from the relationship between Korea and Japan, but in any case, it was the opposite of the opinion of the Federal Assembly. To put it extremely, the opinion of the Federal Assembly was basically, ‘I don’t give a damn about your situation, just get along!’

Then it was better to admit frankly that it was not a problem that the United States could force. Since Korea and Japan were not in a relationship that could be resolved by interfering or threatening, it was much better to create a place for them to resolve it themselves.

“So, what I’m trying to say is this. At least in my government, we will not interfere to mediate between Korea and Japan more than necessary. In other words, we will not exert pressure to force them to reconcile.”

This was tantamount to a bombshell declaration that it would partially abandon the Pacific strategy. There had already been many cases handled solely by the president, but this time it was too much. However, there was a reason why Bush made this judgment.

It was because India and Southeast Asia were already completely under the influence of the United States. Moreover, Korea and Japan had already become bodies that could not live without the United States. Therefore, even if the relationship between the two countries deteriorated somewhat, the damage to the United States was virtually nonexistent.

If an actual war situation were to occur, would Korea or Japan be able to turn against each other with only their emotions? Even if they did turn against each other, would they be able to openly turn against each other in front of the United States?

Above all, can you cut water with a knife? Even if the United States mobilized all its administrative power and did its best, it could not bridge this gap. Korea and Japan were such a relationship. Maybe in 100 years. At least not now.

What Bush was aiming for was cost reduction and a good image. Instead of struggling to pour water into a leaky jar, he wanted to use that power to do other constructive and efficient things.

And there were a few people who realized what Bush was aiming for with this speech on their own. President Kim Ji-hoon was among them.

‘He’s going to take a righteous image without putting in any more effort. He’s saying that by giving up on this one thing, he’ll secure legitimacy in most of the remaining interventions.’

There is a saying in the world, ‘They were beaten because they deserved it.’ In the future, if the United States hits any country, whether by force or trade, in any way, it will be given a kind of absolution if it just talks well. Image is that important. So, Bush put more weight on public opinion than on national defense.

‘Still, it’s not a normal way of thinking.’

Someone said that the madman and the genius are only a paper apart? How thick is that paper? In President Kim Ji-hoon’s opinion, it was madness itself that was hard for ordinary people to imagine.

“Oh, but this is not something to say at the World Cup. The reason I was invited here is not to represent the strategy of the United States, but to celebrate the World Cup.”

Bush stroked his chin like someone choosing an item and spat out a word. He had been continuing the conversation with momentum, but he didn’t have a good ending.

“Then I’ll make a simple prediction.”

The audience, hearing the word prediction, relaxed slightly. Most of the audience was in an atmosphere of ‘Now he’s even going to make predictions,’ but the atmosphere seemed to have softened quite a bit with one word.

“Korea will go to at least the semi-finals.”

With those words, a few minutes later, sports gambling sites, both illegal and legal, began to go wild.

And everyone knows the result.

In addition, if there was a change in Bush’s life, it was that he received prediction requests in all kinds of sports from acquaintances to complete strangers whenever he met them. When even broadcasting stations made requests, he had to declare that he would no longer accept questions on this topic.