George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 217

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“What the fuck?”

Russia wasn’t the only one to curse when they heard that Saudi Arabia had crashed oil prices. Any politician, businessman, or investor would have been stunned. However, the reactions were extremely polarized.

Some were gleefully celebrating the fantastic profits, while others were despairing as they felt the icy chill of financial ruin. Tony Blair was firmly in the latter category. How much lobbying had he done with Saudi Arabia to accept America’s demand to ‘maintain low oil prices’ for their eternal ally?

The level the United States wanted couldn’t be met simply by the UK increasing Brent oil production. The Brent oil produced by the UK was a drop in the bucket. Fortunately, as the EU began to actively intervene in the Middle East, oil prices initially rose, but recently they had stabilized.

News that shale gas was being actively drilled in the United States and that they had more stable technology made him think, ‘Finally, I don’t have to bother with Brent oil!’ If he could just escape from that devil’s clutches, the fact that Brent oil had plummeted along with the fall in oil prices wasn’t a big deal.

It was a truly undesirable situation for a national leader, but what could he do? To put it bluntly, it felt like seeing a single flower blooming in the ashes of a massive fire. In short, a small victory amidst a larger misfortune.

As he was thinking that, a serious sense of self-disgust crept up his back. It was that prideful part of him that was of no help in politics. He thought he had thrown it all away when he took this position, but now it seemed like some of it was still left.

‘Damn it. When did I become like this?’

The reason he had bowed down like this, listening to America’s demands, wasn’t it to deal flexibly with the national situation? In a rapid current, it was safer to ride the current than to go against it. It was more important for the UK to preserve what it had now than to become bigger or stronger.

Because the world had changed. This was for the prosperity of the country rather than personal success. From ancient times to the present, there had never been a time when war had stopped in England. That was until the end of World War II in 1945. In fact, there was the Falklands War after that, but it was too minor to even call a real war. They were experiencing the most peaceful time in their history.

In short, what the UK should focus on most now was staying as far away from conflict as possible. Isn’t the most enjoyable thing in the world watching a fire from a safe distance? Tony Blair, the Prime Minister who had to lead the UK, decided to faithfully follow that saying.

And he had been governing well so far. At least, that’s what he thought. To be precise, he doubted whether anyone else in this position could do better than him.

“That’s that, but Saudi Arabia has really done something big.”

Of course, you might think, ‘Why now?’ Think about it. Saudi Arabia could have tolerated the EU and the US’s demands at any time. In this modern society dominated by capitalism, money is power. Perhaps the only countries that could economically cripple another country without using military force were Russia, the United States, and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia could protest with oil whenever they thought another country’s demands had gone too far. However, conversely, this was their last resort. Saudi Arabia really had nothing but oil.

Therefore, for Saudi Arabia, this was like a nuclear weapon. It was no exaggeration to say that it was functionally identical to a nuclear weapon in terms of power, impact, and even aftereffects. The only difference was that it didn’t directly kill people. If you had to call it something, it would be fitting to call it an economic and political nuclear bomb.

However, the only difference was that instead of a big red button, there were blue and red lines moving in a zigzag pattern, representing market fluctuations. Anyway, this was Saudi Arabia’s nuclear weapon. In other words, once it was deployed against another country, all events would unfold rapidly, like a countdown.

Saudi Arabia’s aim was to completely bankrupt the US shale industry. If they lost their status as the largest oil producer, all that would be left for Saudi Arabia was the unflattering label of ‘a barren Middle Eastern country with a lot of oil.’ Saudi Arabia absolutely did not want this.

Perhaps if these low oil prices continue, the shale industry, which has relatively high production costs, will be sidelined for the time being, whether they like it or not.

However, Saudi Arabia overlooked something, and it was the same kind of misjudgment as Russia. It was America’s obsession with oil. Other countries didn’t feel it because they easily gave up on advancing into the Middle East, but the American’s obsession with oil was nothing short of madness.

If production costs were a problem, they invested a huge amount of money in R&D with the idea that they could just lower the costs. Problems could arise because it wasn’t state-run, but the government stepped in and blocked all avenues of escape, forcing them to lower costs. Moreover, unlike other countries, all of America’s oil refining companies were private. Even Gazprom in Russia was returning to private hands, but in reality, it was no different from a state-owned enterprise that moved according to the whims of the Russian government.

Anyway, the important thing was that it was private, not state-run, because no matter how much Saudi Arabia lowered oil prices, state-owned enterprises would suffer losses directly from the state, but private companies would suffer losses and that would be the end of it. In particular, in countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia, where oil was the backbone of the country, the very existence of the country was at risk if oil prices fell.

This difference transformed Saudi Arabia’s nuclear bomb into an own goal. The United States could just huddle up and endure, but other oil-producing countries had to have reports predicting the amount of losses on the leader’s desk every night. Among them, Russia was the most angry, followed by Canada.

It may be quite unexpected, but Canada was definitely an oil-producing country. However, people didn’t realize it because it was right above the United States and didn’t get involved in world affairs so much, except for hockey. However, the real reason Canada was angry was because of the ‘timing.’ The timing was terrible for something like this to happen in the Middle East.

It was well known that Al-Qaeda’s terrorism had changed Canada’s view of the Middle East for the worse, but this incident led to a flurry of racist insults. Canadians were generally gentle people, but that was only when no one was picking a fight with them. The events in the Middle East and what Al-Qaeda did to Canada were like a mischievous child poking a hornet’s nest without knowing anything.

In that state, Saudi Arabia, which belonged to the Middle East, dropped a bombshell, causing Canadian public opinion to erupt. Of course, they wouldn’t go to war, but public opinion demanding that the government do something was tormenting the Canadian government. It wasn’t that the Canadian government didn’t want to do something, but it was true that there was nothing they could do. So they passed the baton to the United States.

They thought that the United States would swing a sledgehammer on their behalf, since Canada wasn’t the only one who got screwed. The problem was that Canada, like Russia and Saudi Arabia, had misjudged. In their case, they understood the American’s madness for oil very well, but conversely, they overestimated that madness too much.

Because the very head of the United States was saying this:

“I’m getting just the effect I was aiming for.”

The Chief of Staff looked at Bush with a look of exhaustion. This was due to a subtle sense of awe.

“I didn’t expect things to go so according to plan. I’m impressed every time.”

“Put some saliva on your lips before you speak,” Bush joked, implying the Chief of Staff was being overly flattering.

“No. I’m serious this time. I couldn’t even imagine that Saudi Arabia would do something like that. Frankly, I was skeptical even when you said it, Mr. President.”

What Saudi Arabia had done was nothing short of a self-destructive gamble with the fate of the nation. This was not something anyone could have predicted. Of course, Bush already knew roughly what would happen if he activated shale gas, so he recited it as it was, but to others, it was like a prophecy.

The reason why it was called a prophecy was because it was not simply a prediction that could be made by accumulating knowledge. It was only possible with a natural talent to perfectly understand and interpret everything from international affairs to the leaders and administrations of each country, and even public opinion.

‘The low oil prices themselves are what I was aiming for, so it doesn’t matter.’

The shale industry would be hit by this, but that was only temporary. He had already allocated a budget for this a long time ago, and he only had to move within the budget. Everything was being controlled within the expected range.

From the beginning, shale development was intended to change the status of oil-producing countries, but at the same time, it was also intended to usher in an era of low oil prices. To screw over Russia. What Bush was trying to do was to cut off Russia’s respirator.

Imagine. A critically ill patient is undergoing major surgery that will result in death if it fails. What if the power suddenly goes out during the surgery? Of course, in reality, the surgery could be completed safely thanks to the emergency power supply in each hospital, but what if there was no emergency power supply?

“Russia is finished.”

“But we must not be careless.”

As the Chief of Staff said. Who knows how the world will turn out? Even Korea, just 50 years ago, was all barren land. Now, haven’t they created a forest of concrete instead of fields? There was no guarantee that the same thing wouldn’t happen to Russia. In particular, they should not be careless because it was a country with potential even if everything collapsed.

“But at this rate, I don’t think they can maintain the same military size.”

“Experts speculate that Russia will maintain its size even if it means bleeding [economically]. Although it will be somewhat inferior in quality.”

It was natural. In order to defend Russia’s vast territory, quantity was more important than quality. But in order to maintain quantity, they would have to give up quality.

“Anyway, what do we do with this angry Canada?”