George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 236

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“We can somehow resolve the Turkey issue by persuading the member states. But Iran is definitely three years, no more, no less.”

It would take a year for a pro-European figure to infiltrate Iran, another year to settle in, and another year to become fully active. That’s how it adds up to three years.

Since establishing a pro-American regime in Afghanistan and allocating the budget, the CIA had infiltrated to some extent, but not enough to sway Iran’s will. At best, it was just a little better than hearsay. Besides, unless it was the Cold War era, could the CIA really influence a country’s direction in this day and age? If they could, they would have acted officially. This isn’t some movie where an intelligence agency manipulates an entire country.

‘This is ridiculous! They thought they could change public opinion by infiltrating? And they set the conditions like that? I understand the reasoning, but damn it.’

Thinking that, Bush calmed down. But that didn’t change his generally overbearing attitude. Considering how he had been jumping around like a colt whose backside had been branded with a hot iron on Air Force One, ranting and raving about those sons of bitches, this was comparatively calm.

Dealing with those who were least receptive to capitalism in the age of capitalism was proving to be quite a struggle. But that wasn’t just Bush’s thought. Blair felt the same way. However, in Blair’s case, he was more annoyed by the pompous, bear-like figure in front of him.

If Bush was troubled by religious factors, Blair was troubled by Bush’s self-righteousness.

‘Is that man really the president of a country? Or is he trying to be the president of the world? If it were mere hypocrisy, I could at least tempt him with other interests. But he’s genuinely convinced of his own virtue. Damn it all.’

If Blair were an ordinary person, he should be praised just for being able to raise his voice in front of this giant. If he were a weak-hearted person, he would have been too intimidated to even speak properly. But Blair was also the Prime Minister of a country and not a weak person. He was too seasoned to be intimidated by political and physical pressure.

“Has Iran set any other conditions? Iran knows that this is an impossible condition, right?”

To be precise, it wasn’t that Iran set a condition knowing it was impossible, but rather it was a condition that was beneficial whether it was accepted or not.

After listening carefully and thinking about it, it seemed that saying three years wasn’t without reason. Bush, feeling a little embarrassed, lowered his voice, and from then on, no more loud voices could be heard in the closed-door meeting.

‘Three years? Three years, huh. Then, conversely, it would be faster and easier to extend one year to three years.’

The reason it was one year was as follows. It was none other than the year before last that they had promised to give land, establish a country, and even provide aid, making all sorts of promises if they would only disarm. Already two years had passed. However, as negotiations stalled, there were signs that they were rearming, distrusting the EU’s promises.

When Bush began to intervene properly in the Middle East, the answers from the Middle East experts he had gathered with budget investments were initially chaotic, but after the branches of knowledge were organized and the understanding of the Middle East became quite mature, they eventually reached an agreement. Even if viewed positively, it would be a maximum of one year before things fell apart.

So, instead of trying to reduce the three years, he should start thinking about increasing that one year to three years. Whether it was creating jobs only for ethnic minorities to create even a nominal autonomous region, it was necessary to dilute their resentment and anxiety in some way.

Bush now sipped the lukewarm tea. It was smooth, but bitter. But there was nothing better to calm the turmoil inside.

It wasn’t something that could just be watched like a natural disaster. If left unattended, it would be reborn as an even bigger and more violent storm that would shake the world in some way. If this was only a problem that would end in the Middle East, Bush wouldn’t have shown such an anxious appearance or raised his voice like this.

“Maximize relief supplies and constantly promote the results. We in the United States will help with this.”

In the end, Bush chose the most moderate option. In fact, there wasn’t really anything that could be called an option. The current Middle East was largely within the EU’s sphere of influence. The United States couldn’t directly interfere with that. However, in the case of the United Kingdom, it was a community of shared destiny, and because this issue was a huge something that could affect the direction of the world itself, he could raise his voice so loudly. Whether politically, diplomatically, or even in a truly physical sense, the stakes were high.

‘Damn it. At least I need to classify the ethnic minorities within the Middle East and appease them with individual interviews according to their risk level.’

“So, is that all? You came all the way here just to have a shouting match to see who can raise their voice louder?”

Blair didn’t even try to hide his discomfort. There was no reason to. In fact, it was quite absurd to call it diplomacy. If this was diplomacy, wouldn’t a dog barking on the street also be diplomacy?

Of course, it was quite welcome that the United States was offering help. In a capitalist society, what country would hate to be given money? There was a problem with national prestige, but that could be packaged as humanitarianism, and if that wasn’t enough, it could be decorated with stale diplomatic modifiers and flowery language. That’s what diplomacy is all about.

However, that was completely separate from this. That argument, which wasn’t even an argument, was too effective at upsetting Blair. The fact that it was diplomacy and that the man in front of him was the President of the United States was the last safety device that kept Blair formal and the reason why Blair’s thread of reason didn’t break.

So, if he came all the way to England in the midst of his busy schedule just to ask about this, that wasn’t really the only reason. There were some issues he wanted to discuss with his eternal ally. Such things that require thorough security.

“The development of the cure is in its final stages.”

That was something Blair already knew. The cure that was currently being tested across the Atlantic clearly had British investment. Explaining the progress of the work to investors was something that happened in any company. Although the business was led by the United States, it didn’t matter if it was a multinational business.

The problem was why he was bringing this up here. Since Blair didn’t win the Prime Minister’s seat in a poker game, he soon realized what was going on. It couldn’t be because Bush was at a loss for words.

‘Is this guy finally planning to throw me some crumbs?’

It must be a reward for using the United Kingdom like a dog at a funeral [doing unpleasant tasks] during his term. To be precise, it was about the UK’s oil business, in other words, Brent oil, which he had interfered with as if it were a domestic affair. Although benefits had been exchanged between them, it wasn’t enough.

Thanks to deliberately ignoring concerns about Super SARS for fear of economic upheaval or extensively promoting the cure’s development, the economy was able to avoid shrinking. If they had admitted that the current situation was a pandemic, an economic crisis comparable to the Great Depression might have been reproduced on a global scale.

In fact, almost everyone who could access general information media around the world knew that the current situation was a pandemic. However, the WHO was silent, babbling about the progress and results of the cure’s development, promising that it would be resolved in the near future, while not acknowledging the pandemic.

However, antibiotics become less effective with continued use. As the development log became thicker, people’s anxiety also thickened. And in the case of the United Kingdom, it was actually reaching its limit.

“As expected. The reason I brought up this topic is that the distribution priority for the cure, excluding major cities in the United States, is London, England.”

The UK’s investment costs were relatively small, but anyway, just as not everything in a capitalist society revolves around money, he was saying that he would put the UK at the top of the cure distribution priority list. Although he limited it to London, there couldn’t really be only London. What he was saying was about the initial production, and once the mass production of the cure began in earnest, before the distribution to the United States was even finished, all the health centers and hospitals in the United Kingdom would have a stockpile of the cure that would be enough to treat all the citizens of the United Kingdom.

‘Conversely, countries that are disliked by that guy or the Federal Assembly will have the date of receiving the cure delayed.’

It was truly a petty thing to do, but isn’t that what diplomacy is all about? In a word, it was telling them to get along with the United States if they didn’t like it.

“Then what about Canada, Australia, and New Zealand?”

“After the United Kingdom.”

It was a very natural answer. They were allied and friendly countries bound by the Five Eyes [an intelligence alliance]. But if you had to pick the best among them, it would undoubtedly be the United Kingdom. Blair could return with a satisfied expression just from that. The closest ally of the world’s strongest power. In this time when the world seems strangely unstable, there was no title as reassuring as this.

It wasn’t that Blair was incompetent in diplomacy and didn’t hide his expressions or showed rude remarks. There was no reason to. Blair was confident. First of all, it was because he had done as much as he could, and secondly, it was because he bowed to the superpower, but there was no reason to be looked down upon.

“Besides… That’s right. I would like to advise you to withdraw from the Middle East as much as possible.”

The man who had been acting like an arrogant person until just now was passive this time. Of course, he didn’t beat around the bush, but considering that he was a man who had raised his voice as if his blood vessels would burst before drinking tea, he was passive enough.

‘What is this about? It can’t be interference in domestic affairs. Advice? It’s a bit difficult to call this simple advice.’

After hearing this, Blair pondered for a moment, but since he couldn’t come up with an answer, he decided to ask directly.

“What exactly is the intention behind that?”

“It’s as it sounds. If you get too involved, you might be attacked by terrorists.”

However, the words that came out of Bush’s mouth were a bit different from Blair’s expectations. He thought that there must be some great reason since it was the President of a country, not to mention the President of the closest ally and a superpower, who was saying it.

“Isn’t it too late to worry about that?”

All of Europe is tacitly aware that it is losing more than it is gaining from ending the war on terror, but it is actively involved in the Middle East. Are you saying that if you don’t want to be attacked by terrorists, don’t wage war on terror? What kind of nonsense is this?

Even if they do attack, they can just be beaten down with the butt of justice like a whack-a-mole game. Even now, some EU countries were considering adopting Russia’s counter-terrorism doctrine because of the constant small and large terrorist attacks. Besides, even if they tried to withdraw by accepting Bush’s advice, the United Kingdom has come too far, as Blair said.

“Well, it’s true that the headquarters of terrorists is in the Middle East, but that doesn’t mean that terrorists are only in the Middle East.”