George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 233

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‘Ah, this is totally Nobel Prize material.’

Bush muttered to himself on the returning Air Force One. He couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud, but it was the truth. In the end, a war did break out, but hardly anyone saw it as a war. It was a civil war incited by the Communist Party, which had been mismanaging politics while administering North Korea under a mandate. Bush’s tireless efforts to unify the Korean Peninsula had finally come to fruition.

That was the official line, anyway. In reality, he had risked everything and flown to the Korean Peninsula himself, so it wasn’t entirely untrue. Of course, Bush had guaranteed that there would be no danger, but a battlefield is a battlefield, and you never know how things might turn out, right?

Officially, Bush was said to have mourned the division of a single people and felt responsible for the 38th parallel, which had been established through the agreement of powerful nations at the time without properly reflecting the will of North and South Korea. That’s why he declared that Korean reunification was America’s duty. At least on the surface, Bush convinced himself with this excuse he had created and answered accordingly.

‘With this, Korea will obediently follow whatever I say for the time being. Well, it doesn’t matter even if they don’t.’

He couldn’t even imagine that the very people receiving his favor might be questioning his true intentions. In fact, Hyun Won-seop’s suspicion was perfectly reasonable. In international diplomacy, there is no such thing as a favor without a price. In reality, Bush also needed to gain something in order to reassure Congress and find justification, so there were things he would receive or give in the future.

For example, half of the U.S. troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula would be withdrawn as a result of this. Even if there were virtual enemy states, there were no enemy states openly threatening with guns and cannons, so there was a legitimate reason to say that the direct threat had disappeared. However, he intended to maintain the carrier strike group stationed in Nampo Port for the time being. Nampo Port was the best option for keeping an eye on both China and Russia simultaneously.

However, the political situation in Korea was still chaotic. This was only to be expected. What country wouldn’t be in turmoil after swallowing up a piece of land the same size as itself? It was more unusual that things were proceeding so peacefully.

‘A pro-Japanese property investigation will probably take place soon. They might use that money.’

In a newly unified Korea, there are plenty of places to get money.

But that was something that would happen in Korea and something for Koreans to worry about, not something for an American like Bush to worry about. Bush was only acting favorably because half of him was Korean, but that didn’t mean he was such a good person that he would do something for Korea without getting anything in return.

Bush was the President of the United States, not the President of Korea. Besides, he had gained something this time, hadn’t he? If he had risked everything and returned empty-handed, it would have just been a waste of the Air Force’s millions of dollars worth of precious fuel, but Bush had definitely secured conditions that were in line with the national interest.

Above all, one thing was certain.

‘I will tell the EU to completely clear up the old-fashioned mess created by the free and communist camps on the Korean Peninsula, and now clear up the mess that Europe created in the Middle East during the age of imperialism.’

Around this time, the Middle East was shaking greatly in many ways. The EU forces volunteered to play the role of mediator, safeguarding peace in the Middle East, but their understanding was somewhat lacking when it came to fully understanding even the minority ethnic groups. In the first place, it was ridiculous to even care about the minority ethnic groups.

Because the fact was that the situation had progressed to the point where minority ethnic groups were no longer the problem. If it were just the minority ethnic groups, they could have somehow managed. They could have guaranteed the security and even a small piece of land for the minority ethnic groups through constant consultation with the countries concerned, and then things would have worked out somehow.

Whether they provided interest-free loans that were no different from charitable projects to promote the interests of the country and receive something in return later, provided relief through volunteer groups, or simply said that this was the end of their work and completely ignored them afterward. The fact that they had granted them independence was enough.

In any case, the important thing was that the Middle East was a complete mess, and if the EU wanted to continue projecting its influence in the Middle East, it would have to give back as much as it took. This was not the age of imperialism, when they could boldly bring in troops and create colonies.

To be honest, it was a bit ambiguous. All the EU could gain from steadily occupying the Middle East was preventing further refugees and securing oil, but in the former case, it wasn’t really functioning as well as it should have. What exactly *is* a refugee, anyway?

Let’s think about it from the perspective of a citizen living in Europe, not in terms of international law. Refugees are ultimately foreigners without money. Except for a few groups who hate foreigners, ordinary people don’t dislike foreigners that much. The government’s position is not much different. If the refugees were people who came with huge sums of money, how could they be called refugees?

In any case, it was impossible to deny Middle Eastern people entry altogether, and taking advantage of this, many people somehow obtained visas and illegally settled in European society, or even secretly crossed the border through brokers.

And it was fortunate if they crossed the border through brokers, but if the brokers had other intentions, they could be sold as slaves to distant fishing boats or Africa without anyone knowing. No, you might say, what kind of slavery is there in this day and age, but that was the truth and that was the reality.

If these things were to disappear completely, human beings themselves would have to change. Or an order like iron would have to stabilize Africa or the Middle East and establish a proper rule of law or change the regime, but that was absolutely impossible within the next 10 years.

‘In other words, in order to solve the EU’s domestic problems, they have no choice but to completely fix the Middle East and leave.’

Thinking that far, Bush turned his eyes back to the documents. The same amount of documents must be piled up in his office. Maybe even more than this. Because they are uploaded in real time. These documents were also tasks that Bush had to take care of, but they also meant that the autonomy of the United States was gradually weakening.

For various reasons, they would not completely strip away autonomy itself, but in any case, this was necessary to some extent. There were two main reasons why this was possible now. The first was that the local police had been cracked down on several times and filled with people who suited Bush’s taste, and the second was that the thieves were pricked by their own conscience, and they also had things that pricked them in their own way.

Besides, there were problems if they took away more autonomy than this. This was just a slight concession because it would pass on and push away troublesome tasks to the White House. Moreover, as the budget increased, the work also increased significantly. It was impossible for the local administration to handle all these tasks without pushing them into the White House.

So, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say, ‘There is money, but there are no people.’ In fact, you might say, ‘No, if the administrative power of the United States can’t cover it, then there must be something seriously wrong,’ but the United States was running that busy.

They were destroying wooden utility poles and burying all the power lines underground, tearing up and repaving those old, long roads, preserving and restoring ecosystems lost in wildfires, and still waging a pretty good war against kudzu [an invasive vine species], which was still encroaching on the American ecosystem.

The governors were facing and dealing with minor problems that they had been turning a blind eye to because they had no ability to do anything about them or because they thought it was unnecessary. As the United States is a huge country, these things were really literally scattered everywhere. It costs a lot of money to solve them, but it’s uncomfortable not to solve them.

Soft-landing or glossing over these problems is called administrative efficiency, and this has never changed throughout the East and West.

In any case, the situation in which something similar to autonomy was temporarily recovered would not have been possible unless Bush had publicly stated that he would return it to normal before handing it over to the next president.

‘So this damn pile of documents is my karma.’

It was then. A call came from the White House. Probably the Chief of Staff. It was common for the White House to call while he was abroad like this. In fact, almost eight times out of ten, a call would come within an hour of going abroad.

– The EU has responded.

As expected, the person who called was the Chief of Staff. The response was about the Kurdish issue. The EU was trying to rebuild the Kurdish country and create a buffer zone by reaching agreements in various countries through external pressure. They were making small concessions for the Kurds.

They were planning to win within a year at the latest. Because if a year passed, even other ethnic groups who could no longer trust the EU’s promises would start to rise up. Of course, the EU would be able to suppress them sufficiently. But if they did that, the EU would collapse as well. But if they pulled out right now, they would have to suffer extreme losses. There was no way the EU could tolerate this.

‘Okay, what did they say? I think I’ve done enough about the Middle East, too.’

The Middle East was not originally under the jurisdiction of the United States. Strictly speaking, it was no exaggeration to say that it was within the sphere of influence, as the United States was acting as the world’s peace-keeping police, but in any case, the Middle East was now more European than American. And the people living in the Middle East were more familiar with the EU forces than the US military.

However, there were places in the Middle East where the United States was familiar. That was, without a doubt, Afghanistan. Although it has weakened somewhat now, they were grateful to Bush for creating the current Afghanistan.

‘It would have been great if they were American citizens.’

Even though they supported Bush, they were just foreigners anyway. Still, he didn’t feel too bad. Wasn’t this proof that the power of the United States, which claims to be the world’s police, was being used correctly?

The President is happiest when he reaffirms that there are people who support him. Although they were foreigners, Bush felt much better because there were people who recognized his reign.

Besides, it wasn’t like there weren’t such people in the country. In fact, most of the Republican strongholds were giving Bush’s administration unlimited trust. Even in places that could be called Democratic strongholds, there were plenty of people who would support Bush in this election.

– They say a minimum of 3 years.

‘These bastards?’