George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 204

< Episode 203 >

“I tell you every time, choose your words more carefully…”

“How am I supposed to calm down right now? I did well. Afghanistan, South Sudan, even North Korea! But now Sudan is about to screw everything up!”

Bush was genuinely furious. The responsibility he had been suppressing all this time exploded. He wasn’t exactly known for rational thinking, but he had managed to act quite rationally, even if others saw it as him just following his instincts.

“Please calm down. This isn’t like you, Mr. President.”

His chief of staff was greatly alarmed by this, but Bush didn’t care whether he was alarmed or not. The chief of staff was barely even in his field of vision.

“Not like me? What’s more like me than this? Chief of Staff, people are dying. People are dying because of the places I touched. And this time, even more might die. Thanks to a few self-serving bastards, even more people are going to die.”

“This is not the time to just be angry. You need to think of a solution.”

Yes, that was right. Thinking so, Bush took a deep breath in and out. He could feel the heat and anger leaving him with his breath.

“The solution isn’t simple. From a humanitarian perspective, this is something to be angry about, but sadly, politically, it’s quite a good opportunity.”

They could flood Sudan with relief supplies. That was all they had to do, but the ripple effect for the United States would be considerable.

“If they don’t distribute it to the people and instead sell it or hoard it, then we’ll really have to use force.”

But even that force wouldn’t be much. In fact, it wouldn’t even qualify as force. The military would just drop leaflets and broadcast radio messages saying, ‘The Sudanese government is embezzling relief supplies.’ That would focus the hatred on the Sudanese government, and they would try to overthrow it themselves. The difference this time is that it would be difficult for warlords to form. A warlord isn’t just created by like-minded people meeting and clapping a few times. It’s created when sufficient weapons, influence, and people come together to form a force.

Then, the United States could support the peaceful overthrow of Sudan and deploy the prepared military, and that would be the end of it. If they were in their right minds, they wouldn’t think of confronting the protesters and the U.S. military. If they resisted, then they would use force to suppress them.

“It’s so sad how all my thoughts are becoming increasingly violent.”

The chief of staff wondered, ‘When were they not?’ but Bush was serious. He felt like he was becoming more and more violent. Yes, not only that, but his paranoia seemed to be growing as well. Even Bush’s crude black armory, commonly referred to as a desk, was an extension of that.

In fact, the paranoia was unavoidable. His view of the world was already so distorted that it was almost a miracle that he could maintain his current personality and values.

‘But if I can solve it by doing that, then that’s good enough.’

From the start, Bush had an innate limitation. The history was already so different from what Kim Gaphwan knew that the knowledge he had was long useless. Right now, he could seemingly do anything based on America’s vast wealth and the experience he had accumulated by forcing himself to climb the mountain of documents, but if this went on for too long, something would definitely start to creak somewhere.

‘I’m lucky that I’m at least the president. If I were an absolute monarch ruling forever until I was old, I would have already snatched the pistol from a guard and killed myself.’

He could somewhat understand why medieval monarchs became eccentric as they aged. Even Sun Quan [founder of the Eastern Wu kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period of China] had a lot of talk about his obsessions and senility in his later years, but Bush suspected that he had suffered mental damage from the excessive stress of ruling for so long.

“Proceed with Sudan as I said.”

He swallowed the words, ‘But I don’t know if this is protecting world peace or pushing the world into the embers of war.’ There were so many conflicts arising from the movement of great power. It was upsetting how, just as humans unintentionally harm the bugs crawling on the ground as they walk, or a frog is hit and killed by a stone thrown in jest, strange things seemed to happen elsewhere whenever Bush projected power for peace.

‘But if I don’t do anything, that would be a sin.’

That’s right. After thinking about the ripple effects and everything else, he had already come too far. All Bush had to do was act on what he thought was right.

‘That’s right. I need to make sure to add a statement at the end of the diplomatic document that we won’t stand idly by if they use the supplies we send for nefarious purposes.’

‘And I’ll definitely use the phrase ‘you sons of bitches’ at the end. It’s going to be a really exciting diplomatic document! Ah, I get most excited at times like these.’

Whether it knew its owner’s disturbed and complicated mind or not, White came over and sat on his lap. It was unbelievably heavy for a cat. That weight was so heavy that people with naturally weak bodies couldn’t even get up. Specifically, it seemed to weigh about 18kg. Considering that a typical adult Maine Coon weighs 8kg, this guy was excessively large. Naturally, it was even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest cat.

However, perhaps because of its wildness, men liked it more than women, and it was especially popular among macho types. White’s hunting skills were increasing day by day, and it could already easily hunt medium-sized mammals. It had already become unmatched by anyone without weapons. Fortunately, the clever thing never turned against people, no matter what.

Especially, it was unconditionally loyal to its owner, Bush. So today was a very special day. This cat was finally rebelling against its owner for the first time. All it did was act cute to get its owner’s attention, which was enough to be called a rebellion.

That owner of his was too busy to even blink.

“And I should let White out today…”

At that moment, the heavy door to the office opened without a knock. This meant it was an emergency. Wishing that it would rather be a domestic matter that could be easily handled, Bush, with a deeply furrowed brow, opened his mouth.

“Another emergency?”

The reporter was one of Bush’s aides, and he was drenched in sweat as if he had just run a marathon. He must have rushed over barefoot to report this. At this point, one might wonder why he didn’t use the internal line or send someone else, but perhaps the situation was that serious.

“They say the thing China was worried about has finally happened.”

Bush reflexively forced the word ‘shit’ back into his throat.

“What happened? Did a rebellion break out or something?”

“Not yet, but it might happen soon. Because China has completed and is distributing a cure for Super SARS. But that…”

“But that is being distributed without even going through proper clinical trials?”

“Ah. Yes, that’s right.”

It was too easy to infer. Rather, this situation was already within the expected range. The development of vaccines and treatments for Super SARS was being completely led by the United States after the U.S. invested heavily in it. In other words, unless a genius comparable to John von Neumann [Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath] appeared in China, it would never come out before the United States.

To create a cure earlier than the current United States, it would be impossible with the existing methods. They would have to change the very paradigm of drug development that the medical community is currently using. At least as far as Bush knew, there was no such person in China. Even if there was, he would have easily noticed by the informants.

“Damn it, nothing is really working out properly.”

In the West, cats are said to be symbols of bad luck. Bush wasn’t that strongly superstitious, but as much as he had experienced, he resented White today. Perhaps it was trying to warn him of the unfortunate things to come.

Perhaps sensing the change in emotion, White purred unhappily. That heavy vibration was enough to completely awaken Bush’s mind, which was about to fall back into the swamp of thought.

“Damn it. But you’re still helping me.”

White answered with a short but faint purr this time.

“What we need to do is send an official protest.”

“It won’t work anyway. And that cure will only circulate within China anyway. Is there even a need to make an official protest? I think it would be enough to mock them through a statement.”

The chief of staff’s words made some sense.

“But I can’t just stand by and watch that kind of mess. I need to find out the identity of that cure through the WHO [World Health Organization]. Surely they can’t hide it completely from the WHO.”

In the future, the WHO would be blinded by money, and the head would become a complete puppet, showing a level of ability that made the organization seem useless, but right now, the main sponsor was the United States. Therefore, the current WHO had no choice but to listen to the United States.

“Maybe they will. They might hold out, saying it’s a matter of national interest because they’re short on money. They’ve poured quite a bit of money into that cure as well.”

Bush disparaged it as a quack cure, but they recognized that quack cure as a real cure. There may be some who don’t, but most of them will probably think it’s a real cure. They might think that they are taking away something they made with blood and sweat.

“There are so many people that even if some die, there won’t be any impact?”

Since the population is so large that they are forcibly reducing it, this might be a boon for those trying to control the population. Economically, it was the worst, but as they say, a crisis is an opportunity, right?

Bush gritted his teeth. At times like this, the word politics itself became hateful. But politics wasn’t always hateful. Wasn’t what Bush was doing also politics? Tools change their use depending on who is handling them.

Even the fountain pen in Bush’s hand could be used for its original purpose of writing something on paper, or it could be used as a fidget toy in the hands of a bored student, and sometimes, if you hit someone in the head with it, it could suddenly turn into a disappearing magic prop.

If Bush used the fountain pen of politics for its proper purpose, that would be enough.

“Okay, that’s the end of the Sudan and China matters.”

As soon as he said that, the door opened again without a knock, and another aide came in.

“Mr. President, it’s an emergency.”

“Ah, Fuck!”