George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 371

George Bush’s Great America – Episode 370 (371/377)

March. Spring was in full bloom, painting the landscape with vibrant greens, while in the United States, the next presidential election was heating up.

The ‘Refugee War’ had its roots in a brutal gang rape that occurred in the heart of Berlin. To ask if such crimes were unprecedented would be naive; rape had been a persistent problem for a long time.

The crux of the issue lay in the ‘target’ and ‘location’ of the crime.

The victim was a ‘reporter’ conducting a live interview with refugees in Berlin’s city center, a prominent advocate for refugee rights. The broadcast wasn’t on a niche cable channel but on ‘arte,’ a ‘terrestrial news’ channel, a joint program also broadcast in France.

Understandably, the incident sparked outrage. Even the German government, typically slow to react and often indecisive, issued a statement promising a thorough investigation. However, Germany was past the point of mere statements.

The public now demanded the expulsion of refugees from Germany, nothing more, nothing less. Even at the risk of being labeled as a resurgence of Nazi Germany, they were determined to drive refugees from their land at any cost.

The German people rallied, invoking the cause of protecting their families, sidelining previous debates about tax burdens and political ideologies.

While seemingly noble on the surface, this movement ultimately sanctioned self-defense killings.

Thus began an unprecedented nationwide uprising in Germany. Though labeled a riot, it devolved into a bloody conflict between Middle Eastern refugees and the German populace. It wasn’t a civil war, as the refugees weren’t German citizens, nor was it a conventional war, as it wasn’t a conflict between nations.

France, closely monitoring the situation, interpreted it as a ‘signal flare’ – a signal for a broader refugee war aimed at expelling refugees.

The shift in refugee policies by France and Germany, the EU’s two major pillars, provided other member states, who had been cautiously observing, with the perfect excuse to implement their own radical measures.

Thus, an unprecedented refugee war erupted across Europe. While the term ‘refugee war’ had been used metaphorically before – for instance, to describe US administrative policies aimed at controlling Latin American refugees –

this time, it was a real war. A war marked by death and injury.

The starting point, once again, was Germany. Following the public rape case, the government began enforcing stricter controls on refugees. While controls had existed before, they were now enforced by the military and police, moving beyond mere recommendations.

“We will not surrender! Let’s protect our rights and faith!”

Refugees didn’t passively accept suppression. The suppression efforts resulted in numerous casualties, and when refugees took up arms in resistance, German public opinion was shocked. Though a minority, some refugees engaged in shootouts during the suppression, providing ample justification for military intervention.

Germany possessed more guns than one might expect. Illegal firearms were readily available within the country, and weapons also flowed in from the Middle East, ironically, often weapons originally supplied by Europe.

The G36 assault rifle was particularly prevalent. The German army, having experienced the G36’s shortcomings in the Iraq War and the Iraqi Civil War, had secretly sold off large quantities of used G36s to the Middle East at low prices to fund the acquisition of a new standard rifle. This explains why refugees in Germany were able to resist with G36s.

Even if they were only armed with pistols, the conflict would have resulted in numerous casualties, but they resisted with assault rifles that were once standard, albeit defective. This was nothing short of war. The German Federal Army, deployed for suppression and control, found itself facing urban warfare and counter-terrorism operations.

In the former case, they had the advantage of fighting on their home turf, defending their territory with the same fervor they had since World War II. However, even counter-terrorism special forces struggled in the latter case, making it difficult for regular units to cope. While some units performed well, they were ultimately stretched thin.

The German Federal Army deployed its armored forces for suppression, but air power was limited to reconnaissance due to the urban nature of the engagements.

While Germany was declaring war on refugees, other countries were not idle. They moved swiftly, as if they had been waiting for this moment. Even before refugees from other countries began to move, the military took action.

Those who were suddenly attacked were brought under control and expelled to other countries in order. It was not known at all where they were being expelled to. At least, if a refugee could know their destination, they were somewhat lucky. Other refugees were simply pushed out of the border. Pushed and pushed, they eventually arrived in one of two places: China or their homeland.

Most of them settled in Uyghur on the way to China. Uyghur and China welcomed them warmly. Cheap labor without anyone to protect them like refugees was helpful for national reconstruction and revival. Of course, it was certain that they would later grow into subversive elements, but that was a secondary problem to be considered later, and both Uyghur and China were more concerned with the present.

In the case of Uyghur, it was virtually a newly emerging country without a leadership since it had finally become independent. Those who were seated in the National Assembly and the administration as independence activists were virtually all puppets placed by India.

Although the infrastructure that China had built before existed, there were few talents to operate it properly. This was because most of the key positions were occupied by Chinese or traitors who were loyal to the Chinese.

Therefore, the overall infrastructure reconstruction project in Uyghur was eventually monopolized by India, making various excuses. In reality, there was little change from the days when it was an autonomous region, but at least there was no construction of concentration camps or discrimination, so they still supported the liberator India even while being taken advantage of.

China had to spend astronomical amounts of money just to repair the Three Gorges Dam, which had collapsed. China, which had been undercutting everything with cheap labor based on endless manpower, was finally overshadowed as that manpower became scarce.

Even without that, the Chinese industry was running fiercely through a method of consuming talent at an absurd rate.

If that talent evaporated, the industry would evaporate as a whole. Of course, if talent evaporated, the industries of any other country would collapse in the same way, but in the case of China, it was even more serious.

To put it simply, ‘many young people died due to the civil war,’ but the words ‘many young people’ meant that the ‘tens of millions’ of young people who supported China’s industrial base and the middle-aged who claimed to be the pillars of the company had evaporated.

There was no way there wouldn’t be a problem. Numerous Chinese companies were delisted, and especially businesses that seemed to use somewhat complex technologies all evaporated.

Too naturally, companies that had just finished the war and were starting to find their place could not afford the suddenly increased labor costs. Therefore, the number of companies that settled overseas or became independent was countless.

However, this did not mean the destruction of China. Because there were billions of people, far exceeding tens of millions. It was just that in this process, the Communist Party had to reluctantly concede many vested interests to the people.

Now, even if only outwardly, they had to respect the people, even being conscious of the United States, which was standing behind China with its arms folded.

In any case, the number of people working decreased, and they had to pay attention to human rights, so there was no way that labor costs would not increase.

In this situation, refugees, who were a somewhat ‘large workforce,’ were like welcome rain in a drought for the Chinese industrial world. In any case, most of the refugees leaving Europe were flowing into China and Uyghur, dreaming of returning to their own countries in the Middle East.

Back in Europe. Germany had virtually entered a wartime system, and the most peaceful country among those that had received a large number of refugees in Europe was none other than France.

The secret was the infinite exclusion that took place at the civilian level. Because refugees avoided the extreme French and mostly left for other countries, it was inevitably quieter than other countries.

However, this did not mean that it was completely peaceful. It was only peaceful compared to other countries.

Other countries were almost at war, but the difference was that France had already fought a war. Due to that difference, France retained the most power among the EU member states and became the most intact country at the same time.

The problem was with this ‘preserved power.’ The French were no longer able to be satisfied with just driving out the refugees. Rather, it would have been stranger if they could have been satisfied.

Think about it. They were able to blame most of the incidents that had occurred over a period of time entirely on refugees. So, could they be satisfied with just driving them out?

Of course not. There was no way. Moreover, it was the extremely arrogant French people, not other ethnic groups. France began to export its know-how in refugee management and exclusion, and at the same time, began to lay the groundwork for intervening in other member states. In other words, they were trying to change the power structure.

Currently, Germany is the coordinator of Europe, but the somewhat simple and ambitious idea that France would take that place by the time this situation ends was gradually becoming more realistic as Germany gradually melted into a cauldron of chaos over time.

In other European countries, such as Spain, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, these things were happening.

At first, they simply declared martial law and controlled the situation, but they suppressed and suppressed every single one that crawled out as if they had been waiting for it.

Something similar to concentration camps, which Germany couldn’t bring themselves to build even though they didn’t want to bring back nightmares, also appeared.

It was called a concentration camp, but the way it was operated was not much different from the existing refugee camps, but the special difference was that the organization that operated this refugee camp was the military. And the difference was that the military was given the authority to shoot refugees if they escaped from the camp without permission.

Of course, the sanitary conditions of the refugees in the camp were terrible. In severe cases, patients were left unattended for days and turned into corpses, so there was nothing more to say.

The only good thing was that they provided plenty of food, saying that it was definitely not a concentration camp, but this was a cover-up and provided an excuse to call it a refugee camp.

Apart from the national sentiment that had become close to extreme without discrimination, the level of government response to refugees decreased as it approached Southern Europe, or more precisely, the Middle East.

For example, Bosnia, where Muslims who believe in Islam have accounted for nearly half of the total population since the beginning, refugees who escaped from Western Europe or came from the Middle East often settled there. The same was true for Albania, which is right next door and where Islam accounts for the majority.

They betrayed the hearts of the refugees without hesitation. In fact, it was not a betrayal, but a very natural measure taken to preserve the country.

Refugees are strangers, regardless of whether they share the same religion. Such strangers are dirtying the security of the country and demanding land for constitutional amendments. Therefore, it was right to say that this was not a betrayal of a different Islam, but that the government took appropriate measures to protect freedom of religion.

In any case, in this situation, the only people who were sane were the soldiers who had been dispatched to the Iraq War and the civil war.

In particular, the youngest lieutenant colonel in France, a war hero nicknamed Elan, almost lost his job for making a wrong statement.

His remarks were as follows:

“Excessive and radical refugee policies disregard human rights. War isn’t just about shooting rifles at each other or launching missiles. The essence of war is abandoning human rights to achieve desired outcomes. And our France is about to throw away human rights. We cannot allow France to be engulfed in war when all of Europe is burning with refugee crises. Everyone needs to regain their senses.”

It wasn’t a time when the era was calling for defeatist ideas, and up to this point, it would have been just a moderate statement. But the problem was, damn it, just three hours after this statement was posted on social media, a public sexual assault occurred in Berlin.

The patriotic hero who steadfastly voiced his beliefs amidst discomfort and criticism was instantly reduced to a clueless military man.

Of course, there were many who thought like him, but even those who thought that way had to be greatly shocked and change their minds after watching the live broadcast.

The only ones who didn’t waver here, as mentioned above, were those who had the fortitude gained from experiencing war. Some had PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder], and some harbored resentment, but what mattered was that they had directly experienced the plight of refugees in that war.

So, they couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. They couldn’t empathize, but they could at least understand them. Even if refugees were to be driven out, it shouldn’t be done this way.

This would only provoke traditional animosity towards the Middle East and endless hatred.

There was only one country that wasn’t swept up in the above wave, and that was the United Kingdom. In the early stages, the UK tried to accept refugees in the usual way. In fact, the administration was running smoothly. The problem was when a swarm of refugees, no different from a mob, began to pour in from the continent.

When Germany announced its policy of accepting a large number of refugees, the UK could not be an exception. If Germany did this much, the UK, as a member of the EU [European Union] and the world’s sixth-largest economy, had to do something. But they couldn’t just bring all those refugees into the mainland.

A whopping 1 million. After diplomatic compromises and reductions, the number of refugees still amounted to 1 million. No matter where they looked, they could only see ruin, and simply letting them into the UK was absurd. They would rather spend a huge amount of money to build more refugee camps around the Middle East or the Turkish border than take in more refugees.

So, the UK played a trick. Isn’t the UK traditionally one of the first countries that comes to mind when you think of ‘hateful personality’? They dumped all 95% of the refugees in Northern Ireland. More precisely, they further divided it and placed refugee camps on the Irish border.

They ‘cared’ so that refugees could naturally flow into Ireland as they escaped from the refugee camps. Naturally, this ‘care’ caused Ireland to be horrified.

Furthermore, the intentionally low level of surveillance created to expel refugees to Ireland contributed to the spread of refugees throughout Northern Ireland.

It was a perfect justification for Northern Ireland to revolt against the mainland. Public opinion in Northern Ireland was largely divided into three.

Those three were, needless to say, the same old divisions: ‘Independence from the UK, incorporation into Ireland, remaining in the UK.’ The fact that it had been divided into three from the beginning had only surfaced and begun to be discussed in earnest.

According to the survey conducted earlier, these opinions should have been evenly matched, but the pro-UK faction was greatly reduced due to anger at the measures taken. The majority leaned towards incorporation into Ireland and independence, with most converting to incorporation into Ireland.

This was partly because they were Irish, but also because Northern Ireland’s geographical location was not conducive to the survival of a newly born country.

If they were to become independent, they would first have to groan between the UK and Ireland.

This alone would cause screams, and if the UK blockaded the sea, there would be nothing they could do. So, even if they were to become independent, the best they could hope for would be a dominion that relied on the UK or Ireland.

With the situation unfolding like this, the country that was sweating bullets was the UK, and the country that should have been beaming or welcoming was Ireland. But the problem was that Ireland, the main entity of this merger, was expressing reluctance.

Normally, they would have actively invested capital, intervened, and issued statements as if singing a song, putting emotion into every word. But the UK’s quick response and radical reaction made Ireland hesitate.

When has Ireland ever stopped talking when the UK was acting up? But now was that time.

When ominous stories began to emerge from Northern Ireland, the UK mobilized its powerful navy, which had been passed down through a long tradition, and surrounded Northern Ireland.

They had only deployed the navy, not yet blockaded the sea, but it was clear to anyone that if they really declared independence, it would be war. And in reality, that was highly likely.

The British Navy, with its destroyers, frigates, and fast attack crafts increased by about two times each, was quite threatening. And while the navy itself was threatening, the content of the war itself wouldn’t be much different from the mainland if a war broke out.

Even if they were to seize all the military bases in Northern Ireland, missiles would fly in from right next door, the air force would attack, and assault brigades, including the Marine Corps and Army Aviation, would cross over. That would be the end of it.

In any case, with the situation like this, the only option left for Ireland was to say only what was necessary, such as ‘This situation is not desirable for both countries,’ and then shut their mouths.

In other words, the reason why they weren’t swept up in the refugee rejection wave sweeping across Europe was because there was something more urgent, nothing more, nothing less.

As a result, voices demanding a vote to secede from the UK were growing louder in Northern Ireland.

However, Tony Blair, who was about to step down in the UK, only repeated like a broken record that the current situation was not suitable for a vote, based on the state of affairs.

After a month of such radical refugee expulsion policies being implemented, Europe was successfully driving refugees out to other continents.

The changes that occurred during that month were basically three. Of course, the first was the change due to the refugee policy. The policy based on France’s refugee policy was certainly effective, and the number of refugees in Europe decreased rapidly.

The Uyghur region, which refugees had preferred the most, became saturated in just one month. One of the reasons why refugees preferred the Uyghur region was the vague hope that they could do as they pleased because it was a new country. But primarily, thanks to India’s influence, the Uyghur region was a secular state, but the majority were Muslims.

So, the Uyghur region had no choice but to be filled with refugees to its limit. The rest all flowed into China.

The second was the United States’ response. What had been ‘Oh, it’s your own fault. Oh, take responsibility quickly’ became expressing their opinion by remaining silent, even if they didn’t support the radical policies. Rather, the United States’ attention was focused on Northern Ireland.

This was partly because the UK and the US were in the same boat, but also because the refugee issue was not a problem that the US wanted to face directly. However, this did not mean that it was not reported or neglected.

The third was Germany’s change. As it underwent rapid changes due to the refugee crisis, there was a time when it seemed like it might return to ‘that era’ [a reference to Germany’s dark past during World War II], but it didn’t really happen.

Of course, it was inevitable that hatred towards Middle Easterners was rampant to a serious extent compared to before, but that was the Middle Eastern refugees’ own fault.

The problem was that, as expected, astronomical amounts of money were spent in this process. What Germany waged was literally a war. They put all their efforts into driving out refugees who had turned into armed guerrillas in the city, let alone dealing with hostage-taking counter-terrorism.

They managed to drive them out somehow thanks to citizens’ reports and quick responses, but that was just the end of the city. Next, they had to drive them out to the border, which was not easy.

Astronomical costs were mobilized here. Searching was also a chore, but they couldn’t just kill them on the spot, so they had to go through the process of arresting them, gathering them, and deporting them.

At the point of driving them out of the city, Merkel pulled out a divine move that no sane person would even imagine. She decided to negotiate with the refugees after all.

However, that negotiation did not mean that the refugees would remain in Germany. She urged them to return to the Middle East rather than fight here.

Even while providing them with huge amounts of money and weapons. It was by no means a normal person’s idea, and it was a proposal that even the receiving side was embarrassed by.

Even if they had standard rifles and various military supplies in their hands, they were still a civilian group. No matter how much they had declined due to the long peace, they could not be a match for the German army, one of the traditional advanced armies. They were quite shocked by the fact that they were no match, and those who surrendered came out one after another.

Thinking about the money that would be spent to manage them was truly terrible. It was the most correct choice to send them back to the Middle East, even if it meant giving them money. Of course, Merkel was cursed out for this action and had to bear all sorts of stigmas, such as succumbing to refugees, but this method was definitely effective.

This was because about 1.5 million refugees surrendered in just one week after this statement. Normally, they wouldn’t believe it, saying it was a trick to divide them, but the image of Germany cherishing refugees and being taken advantage of like a pushover had a strong effect.

Still, it was the same in the end that astronomical amounts of money were spent, but it was still much less than the money spent on combat and searching.

And this incident was the event that completely pitted Germany and France against each other. France had always coveted Germany’s position, but in the end, it couldn’t surpass it.

Of course, they could gain some diplomatic sympathy by exerting influence during the refugee war, but the early 21st century was a world dominated by capital. Those who preserved capital were bound to be stronger.

As the saying goes, if you have a knife, you should at least cut a radish [a Korean proverb meaning to make the most of what you have]. Having questioned and rebelled against the German-led EU, wouldn’t it be worth it to take over the EU’s leadership in the future?

While everyone except the United States was paying attention to France and Germany, the United Kingdom was busy moving in its own way.

As they continued to put pressure on them, the justification was weak because the culprit of this situation was the cabinet that dumped all the refugees in Northern Ireland.

But if they withdrew the troops, it seemed like Northern Ireland would slip out of their hands right away. So, even though they were sensing that it would eventually fall apart, they couldn’t easily withdraw the troops.

The problem was that Northern Ireland interpreted the UK’s pressure as ‘The UK is currently so chaotic that they have no choice but to move troops to maintain Northern Ireland.’

With the situation likely to lead to war, Northern Ireland began to push for a vote on its own, thinking that they should somehow pull off a quick one while the UK was in chaos.

In fact, this wasn’t far from the truth. Except for the fact that Northern Ireland was the main subject of that chaos.

The sense of betrayal that Northern Ireland felt from the situation of putting all the refugees in Northern Ireland was so devastating. Moreover, even though Ireland was working hard to deny it now, they had a firm belief that they would help in any way if they eventually expressed their intention to merge with Ireland.

This was similar to the original history, but it was the beginning of Brexit [British exit from the European Union] with a completely different meaning.