George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 100

“Weapon support?”

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the 14th President of the Philippines, stared wide-eyed at the diplomatic document from the United States. Becoming President of the Philippines, following in the footsteps of her father, Diosdado Macapagal, was a great honor, but the Philippines was in a precarious state.

In any case, the Philippine government and military were delighted by the unexpected U.S. arms support. It was structured as a barter, with the U.S. selling weapons to the Philippines at bargain prices. For the budget-strapped Philippines, this was as good as outright aid.

“Of course, we should accept!”

Why wouldn’t they? Unless they were using Eastern Bloc equipment like AKs, the standard rifle of the Philippines was the M16A2.

“But what’s with this diplomatic document? Did it really arrive like this?”

The ‘content’ of the diplomatic document was normal, but the ‘introduction’ was the problem. The introduction read:

「Do you desire power?」

This was hardly appropriate for a national document.

“It’s probably a typo, or someone playing a prank, right?”

Someone did play a prank – the highest person in the United States, in fact. After staring at the mountain of documents that had piled up taller than himself, he had snapped and started chuckling to himself.

“Forget about these trivial issues. The important thing is that the United States is once again our backer.”

Not long ago, they were contemplating a balancing act between China and the United States, but with China’s decline, they had decided to focus on ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations].

After the Marcos regime, relations between the United States and the Philippines had gradually soured. In 1992, the U.S. military completely withdrew, fulfilling the Philippines’ dream of independent national defense. However, the Philippines’ value plummeted with the U.S. military withdrawal, and the economy began to falter.

The U.S. military had been stationed there at the request of the Philippine government, dutifully paying a substantial amount of rent, making it an important source of funds for the Philippines.

Eventually, the country slowly descended into chaos, and the economic powerhouse that was second only to Japan in Asia disappeared like a bubble, leaving only the struggling Philippines of today.

“The United States wants us to win the war on terror.”

“Of course! With such a reliable sponsor backing us, we must win.”

She confidently pushed her silver-rimmed glasses up with her finger. Had the United States ever failed to achieve anything it set out to do, except for the Vietnam War? It would be difficult if the United States’ wishes were not fulfilled.

This battlefield was none other than the Philippines.

“We will arm the elite forces first, step by step.”

“There’s no talk of re-stationing.”

“Perhaps they thought it was too early?”

After all, the U.S. military had only pulled out in 1992. Only 10 years had passed, and it was too soon to expect a complete reversal of attitude. In addition, the Philippine people were still proud of the Philippines’ independent national defense.

As the world situation increasingly turned towards the United States, there was talk of re-stationing, but that would mean the Philippines would have to completely bend over backwards. Even if they thought the U.S. military was necessary, no one would say it out loud.

The reason the United States was interested in the Philippines was once for the defense of the Western Pacific, but now the story was different. They were in close contact with Indonesia to create a huge ASEAN alliance, and there was frequent talk of a military alliance with India.

Moreover, the South Korean military was also benefiting. Even after selling 50 F-15Ks, the United States was willing to provide additional F-15Ks if South Korea wanted them, actively increasing the defense capabilities of the South Korean military. What’s more, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces were gradually increasing their naval power.

With China, the most significant potential adversary in Asia, largely contained, there was little to worry about in defending the Western Pacific.

Now, only the Philippines was in a difficult position.

“Still, constantly sending love calls has been effective.”

The Philippine government was quick to notice that it was the only ASEAN member state that did not oppose U.S. involvement in ASEAN. They only regret it after losing it.

When they said they would unify with American-made products, they didn’t express it outwardly, but they cheered inwardly. The Philippine military was so pro-Western that they used a mix of American and British products, so there was no particular logistical confusion.

The only problem was that they didn’t have any modern tanks. To be precise, they did have tanks, but they were British light tanks developed in 1970. The FV101 Scorpion had a 90mm main gun, which was a very poor caliber considering that most current main battle tanks use 120mm main guns.

As the name light tank suggests, it weighed only 8 tons, and the armor was so thin that it was easily penetrated by most anti-tank weapons. The Scorpion was by no means a main battle tank.

“Even so, they’re not giving us tanks.”

Still, they promised a lot of infantry equipment. However, they were relieved to hear that they would be connected to the U.S. to provide retired tanks, or to buy tanks from the U.K. or South Korea at a low price. This meant that national defense was steadily increasing.

“Even if the United States gave us tanks, our Philippine Army wouldn’t be able to maintain them.”

Even with foreign-made passenger cars, if only one part broke down, it would cost a lot of money. Imagine the cost for foreign-made tanks!

No matter how strong military equipment is, it doesn’t last forever without breaking down. Even if the United States donated M1 Abrams tanks to the Philippine military for free, it was certain that less than half of the tanks would be running properly in just five years due to financial difficulties.

“We’ll look into the tank situation when things calm down a bit.”

As for the Air Force, the United States had already said that it was willing to sell F-15 and F-16 fighters to the entire East Asian region, so they were just licking their lips. In fact, although it wasn’t explicitly stated, they knew very well that the United States would approve any project, such as attack helicopters or warships, as long as they put up a business proposal.

Of course, they wouldn’t sell the latest weapons such as the F-22 or Zumwalt-class destroyers even if they were offered hundreds of millions of dollars, but even if the Philippines acquired them, they wouldn’t have the budget to operate them.

“Okay, now that we have the United States behind us, how is the war on terror going?”

The Philippines and terror had only recently started their war. There had been a large-scale terrorist attack. Whether it was meticulously planned, or the work of a psycho group that wanted to plunge the Philippines into chaos, or a statement made after feeling secure from committing a few more big ones, it was impossible to know. Unfortunately, they didn’t know who did it, so they had no choice but to crack down on innocent citizens or existing organizations.

At first, they thought it was the work of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) [a separatist group in the Philippines], an Islamic rebel group on the island of Mindanao, but they denied committing such an atrocity that directly violated human ethics. It was unlikely that those who demanded independence would commit terrorism on the streets, not government facilities.

Isn’t the fastest way for a country and all organizations to collapse to go against the public sentiment that makes up the organization? But the Philippine government wasn’t going to believe that. Furthermore, they were preparing to deploy troops to crack down on them.

But what was this? An organization presumed to be the real culprit was on the list of suspects in an unexpected place. According to a report by Davao Mayor Duterte, he had deployed the DDS [Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group] to destroy a drug factory in a neighboring city, but the DDS was almost annihilated because they used all kinds of heavy weapons.

The content itself was a request for a budget to supplement this, but the description of the heavy weapons was so ridiculous that the Philippine central government began to investigate it directly.

What the hell? They used a Vulcan [M61 Vulcan, a Gatling-style autocannon]. Although it was destroyed by a grenade and exploded, leaving only debris, it was definitely a Vulcan when compared to the photos that came with the report, although it was a bit crude.

It would have been absurd to say that it was just for show, but even the army attack helicopter that went to support was shot down by this Vulcan, so it was truly absurd. In addition, ordinary organizations usually can’t unify their weapons due to availability, so they are all over the place, but they were all unified with M4s and even wearing fairly expensive bulletproof vests.

Looking at the battle video taken from afar, it was truly absurd. RPG-7s [rocket-propelled grenade launchers], which are common anti-tank weapons, are okay. An improvised armored vehicle with a minigun? Okay, let’s say that’s okay too. A technical [an improvised fighting vehicle, typically a civilian vehicle with a weapon mounted on it] with a truck modified into a multiple rocket launcher?

Okay. Let’s say that’s okay too!

Even so, what the hell is a Vulcan! No matter how close it is to junk, it’s not a weapon that an organization can acquire and operate. Maybe if it was the Middle East, where the ghosts of the Mujahideen were rampant.

But this is still the Philippines!

“Have you not found out yet?”

“The scope of the investigation is so wide that it’s seriously too broad. It seems like we’re about to catch the tail, but it disappears far away.”

“Still, you must have narrowed it down a little, right?”

They narrowed it down by ruthlessly cracking down here and there, except for the very big problem that they were all tied to local families, so they couldn’t investigate properly. In order to investigate everything, they would have to search every single family.

The justification for strengthening the ever-weak central government was perfect, but if they tried to put it into practice, the Philippines, which was already on the verge of becoming a military dictatorship, might be dismembered.

‘Then I’ll really have to borrow the hand of the United States.’

I’ve never seen a country that has calmed its internal affairs by borrowing the hands of others do well, but at least it’s much better than watching the Philippines perish with my eyes open.

In any case, the best thing to do is to slowly strengthen the power of the central government without friction as much as possible.

“By the way. Duterte hates crime, right? Give Davao enough budget support.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And completely reorganize the DDS and use this opportunity to make it a ruthless anti-terrorist unit.”

It wasn’t a very special thing in the Philippines. Even the DDS was a kind of self-defense force created with the permission of the Philippine central government. There were many such groups throughout the Philippines.

“Let’s start the war on terror.”

Thus, the President of the Philippines declared the war on terror.