George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 25

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The same thing was about to happen in the United States.

Al-Qaeda wasn’t the kind of group to stop after just one terrorist attack. Their way was to retaliate when hit and to resist until death. That was the way of the terrorist.

Think about it. Who could commit suicide bombing with a clear mind? Looking at the East and West, past and present, even in the former Japanese Empire, the only country that adopted suicide as a doctrine, everyone from forcibly conscripted Koreans to volunteer Japanese soldiers cried out for their mothers in their final moments, contrary to the ‘sublime’ imaginations of the higher-ups.

But in Al-Qaeda, there were countless people who had such ‘sublime’ imaginations. This terrorist was one of them. Someone who would gladly give his life for the great cause that Islamic fundamentalism sought to achieve.

The terrorist’s goal was to carry out a bombing at Walt Disney World in Florida. There was much discussion within Al-Qaeda, but this time, the target was the future infidels: ‘children’.

The problem occurred at the entrance to Florida. A checkpoint appeared, looking crude but having everything it needed. Why, out of all the roads, was there a checkpoint on this one? No, before that, a checkpoint on the road? In America?

Well, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible. 9/11 had just happened. But why, out of all the cars, this car? To come so close to the target and have this happen!

The terrorist outwardly feigned composure, but inside, he was shrinking. He felt like the lamb he had eaten for his last supper was slowly crawling up his throat. When he put his foot on the accelerator and lowered the window, he tasted a sourness on his tongue.

In the bed of his dump truck was a large bomb. It was covered with only 1 meter of dirt, but that was enough to keep it safe. Surely they wouldn’t ask him to empty the truck bed here.

“I’m a police officer guarding this checkpoint. Show me your license.”

The terrorist confidently presented his forged license.

“Where are you headed?”

That attitude! He didn’t like that attitude at all! That racist gaze, as if they had already decided he was a criminal, was so hateful. Then he would become the impression they wanted. He would become a real terrorist and leave a scar that would never be washed away.

“Miami.”

He inadvertently looked in the rearview mirror. Dozens of officers were sticking to the truck bed, looking at it. These people were treating him like a criminal. He *was* a criminal, but at least he hadn’t been caught yet, so wasn’t he *not* a criminal? Why were they treating him like a confirmed criminal?

“Let’s take a look at the truck bed. Empty it over there.”

Empty the truck bed? Was that even a reasonable request? It was an irrational and absurd demand. The only reason they were pushing him was because he was a foreigner.

Even the most successful police officer in the United States of America couldn’t issue such an order just because someone was a foreigner. *I am a disaster. A disaster you brought upon yourselves.* A war on terror, was it? Then this is a war you started.

“Do you have a visa?”

“I don’t.”

The terrorist stepped on the accelerator. The flimsy vehicle barrier at the checkpoint broke without stopping the truck. That barrier made of white and red.

“Vehicle is a Volvo dump truck. License plate is AKBAR on a black background.”

「Confirmed. Initiating blockade.」

The checkpoint was triple-layered, with sufficient distance between each layer. In reality, it was only triple-layered in name. In reality, once you broke through the first checkpoint, it was just a high-pass [a term for a road where you don’t have to stop to pay a toll].

The remaining two checkpoints were in the form of gates, and although the form was truly primitive, it was hard to find anything more efficient than this.

That method was to block the road entirely with large containers. Initially, they tried to simply block it according to the manual, but the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, directly instructed them to do so. It was an idea that came from the head of George Bush himself, not from anyone in the federal police or the Pentagon.

They even made construction trucks empty their truck beds completely and put everything back in, which was almost crossing the line between legal and illegal, and with heavy equipment being mobilized, it was almost maddening. The officers’ dissatisfaction was off the charts, and the complaints from private companies were no joke.

This wasn’t just in Florida. Throughout the United States, helicopters with snipers were stationed 50km from the center of major cities on major entry roads. The number of roads varied, and the snipers’ skills also varied from high to low, but having them and not having them was a world of difference.

However, this was a complete budget overrun. No joke, it seemed like they had spent more than two years’ worth. Perhaps a budget close to three years’ worth was being blown in real time. But what could they do when the president told them to do it? Fortunately, he said he would take care of the budget, so it would work out somehow.

…Wouldn’t he?

「Second checkpoint approximately 1.5km ahead. Successful kill.」

* * *

“The Middle East! Is the land of Muslims!”

It was a success. Allah blessed the ‘holy sacrifice’ operation; it was a complete success. There were some countries that failed, but those were places where Allah’s mercy still remained. This must be a sign from Allah. With Allah’s help, there would be no great difficulty in conquering the entire Middle East. The countries that were warned would doubt the religion they themselves worshiped, and the betrayed faith would have a chance to return to Allah.

To achieve so much with just one operation!

Well, at least Zarqawi thought so. He had exchanged the greatest blessings Allah had given him—reason and intellect—for something else, but he really thought so.

“Europe! Christian nations! Accept my warning!”

So, about that Europe. The home of all conflicts. Totalitarianism, nationalism, imperialism, militarism. A hotbed of death where all dangerous things gather, and a nest of madness pretending to be gentle.

Zarqawi, do you know what happens when you kick a hornet’s nest? Do you know what kind of consequences you will cause if you trample on the face of a sleeping lion?

There’s no need for more metaphors. Have you ever imagined what kind of hell would unfold in the Middle East if you committed terrorist attacks in the capitals of European countries, even in the Vatican? History may repeat itself, but how can it repeat so quickly?

If Europe had ever united since the Roman Empire, it was during the Crusades. And in modern times, it was no different.

“Deus vult!” [God wills it – the battle cry of the Crusaders]

Gains, ideologies, beliefs. Everything lost meaning in the face of Al-Qaeda’s terrorism, and the European Integrated Crusader Army was created. The official name was the European Integrated Army, but everyone had the perception of it being a Crusader army. After all, when fighting the Middle East, it was always a Crusade, wasn’t it? So it *is* a Crusade.

The army’s momentum was so high that they were ready to turn it back to the Stone Age or even earlier if they were given the order, but how nice would it be if momentum alone could solve everything.

However, just as you can’t expect a newborn to walk no matter how much you coax them, no one knew what to do even if you told the newly formed integrated army to ‘Raise the Crusader flag of freedom high and march to the Middle East!’

Just as the most delicious ingredients turn into bizarre food when they fall into the hands of the British, there was also concern about who should take the baton, and even if they won and returned, they were only thinking about how to divide the Iraq pie, and it was difficult to say it out loud.

At least one person had to maintain a sound mind in this storm of emotions.

“Bloody hell.”

Tony Blair was trembling all over, even skipping the tea time he enjoyed so much. What if he had cooperated when the United States proposed it back then? Could it have changed if he had acted a little more subserviently? At least if he had taken some proper measures?

It was already a lost cause, but it was too late to grab the reins.

With the invasion of the Middle East imminent, how could he act to secure ‘more pie’? How could he act to ‘reduce the consumption of his country’s troops’?

How could he seize the baton, in other words, hegemony within the European Union, within this European Union?

If it were a small country like Greece, there would be no need to worry about that. But the story was different for countries like Germany, England, and France. They were also big. The armies were also big. In the end, the war would revolve around these three.

But what if they left Iraq during this long discussion?

No, in the first place, Al-Qaeda was widely spread throughout the Islamic world. But they now had something to call a base. Isn’t now the right time to strike? But if we go in like this, everything will be a mess?

The way the newly created question bit the existing question was like a dog chasing its tail and spinning in place. It wouldn’t be much different if you replaced it with a snake. Because nothing was being achieved in either case.

It was the limit of the alliance. There were many heads, so they could be careful, but at the same time, there were many heads, so they couldn’t make a decision easily. Even if a fire was approaching from behind, it was human nature to test the limits to the point of being precarious if a large jewel fell on the road.

Anyway, the conclusion they came to was.

“If we go in like this, the European forces will each carry out their own missions. A close integration system is needed.”

It would take them at least two weeks to move.

And two weeks was more than enough time for Russia to move.

* * *

When the bomb went off in Red Square. A live news broadcast was taking place there. The theme was a typical propaganda news show, ‘Russia is so peaceful!’ It was a trivial broadcast showing the bustling Red Square.

It was just when Vladimir Putin was drinking tea and leisurely watching the news, harshly criticizing the European Union.

Can’t you imagine?

In fact, this terrorist attack was not the work of Al-Qaeda. To be exact, it was a terrorist attack by Chechen rebels. That’s not to say that it had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda at all, but Al-Qaeda provided bombs and firearms to the Chechen rebels. In other words, it could be regarded as a kind of sabotage.

Just as the Western world lumps the entire Middle East together as the Middle East, the Middle East also lumps the entire Europe together as Europe. Somehow, Russia was also included in the terrorist target for the reason of being a ‘Christian country’. To be exact, it was Orthodox, but anyway, Christianity is Christianity, isn’t it?

More than anything else. What is the reason why Al-Qaeda was created? Isn’t the origin of Al-Qaeda the Mujahideen [Islamic guerilla fighters]? What was the Mujahideen? It was a gathering of warriors who directly resisted Soviet communism, wasn’t it? In a way, this could be said to be Russia’s self-inflicted wound for inheriting the legacy of the Soviets, but that’s not to say that the Soviet Union at the time wanted to fight the Afghan-Soviet War. Rather, they tried to avoid it.

Anyway, the conclusion is that the Western world has never really succeeded in projecting power into the Middle East. Anyway, the guys who try to project power into the Middle East are all morons.

But what the hell is going on now?

“Someone tell me.”

There were many elites in front of Vladimir Putin, but no one was willing to open their mouths. Someone said that politicians are the smartest but the dumbest? Politicians are divided into those who are obsessed with things that help them live a long life and those who try to carry out their ideas.

The problem is that everyone here only wants to enjoy a long life.

“Why is everyone so quiet?”

Putin missed the Soviet Union. In those days, if they kept their mouths shut like that, they could just fix their corn and send them to the Gulag [Soviet forced labor camps], but now they can’t do that. They have to say goodbye to the world properly and permanently. It was truly a sad world.

Their feelings must be exactly like this.

‘Who am I? Why am I trying to become Icarus, who is approaching the sun, by becoming a politician?’

Someone once said that with great power comes great responsibility. That saying was right on the mark. In fact, in this case, they were satisfied with the grace of the sunlight, but the sun itself descended to the ground and burned the ground by burning its body without sparing anything, but the sun is something that people cannot do anything about. Instead of trying to do something about the sun, they should think about how to take care of themselves.

Of course, they could open their mouths and say anything. Of course, the aftermath could end with a dismissal depending on the mood of the one and only Putin,

“Give me a day. If there is no operation report that can advance into the Middle East in my seat at this time tomorrow.”

Well, everyone knows.

“It’s a tea party.”

* * *

“A tea party is good.”

“Then shall we put it on the schedule?”

“No, are you crazy?”

“…Let’s forget about it.”

‘This crazy manic-depressive president!’ The card secretary, who was tired of matching strange rhythms, was seriously considering putting a mental examination between the president’s schedules, even by force.

“Well, this should be enough for now.”

Seeing the reports that terrorist attacks were being prevented in real time coming up one after another, he was both uneasy and relieved that the measures he had taken were working. No matter how much I knew the future and was moving with all my might, there was no guarantee anywhere in the world that it would work out well. Rather, things were going so well that I was even starting to wonder if God was really protecting me.

Anyway, very interesting information came in from abroad.

“By the way, those Middle Eastern guys. They actually touched Russia.”

If you think about why the Mujahideen rose up, it wasn’t impossible, but still. Touching Russia? They were groaning from the aftereffects of the Soviet era, but can a raccoon catch a bear just because the bear is groaning?

Well, in reality, it will eventually be a fight over who will eat Iraq first, Europe or Russia.

By the way, I couldn’t help but feel that the tension was easing. At the time of 9/11, I was obsessed with the idea that I had to play the role of a perfect and strong president, and I was moving compulsively, but now that has eased a lot. More than anything else, I felt like I would really go crazy if I lived like that.

Well, to be honest, that was just the strong George W. Bush that I thought of.

“Well, and.”

Wouldn’t it be more fun to be a little crazy? It would be a nightmare for neighboring countries and allies. Because I was the president of the United States of America, the crazy things I could do were truly global.

‘Oh, I have to do something about the North Korean nuclear issue.’

What should I do? If I call out each and every nuclear weapons test site they are building, wouldn’t they freak out on their own? Or it seems easy to just fly a few times over the Korean Peninsula from an aircraft carrier group and bomb only the nuclear weapons research facilities, but if I do that, it’s really war.

But war, war. It’s not the Middle East, it’s North Korea, so is there any need to avoid war? Still, South Korea is right below, so wouldn’t South Korea do something?

But if I give something to South Korea already, I have nothing to say to Congress.

At least North Korea has to make a formal announcement to have a proper justification, right? Or should I put pressure on them by doing joint training so that the thief will get caught? Surely, the announcer Ri Chun-hee on Korean broadcasting will use her unique accent to say

“The first Korean hydrogen bomb! Test! Complete! Success!”

If they spill everything they have, wouldn’t that be a justification?

Should I start putting pressure on them now? No, no. Still, it was necessary to move after the Middle East had calmed down a bit. What could happen, after all? If Russia and Europe turned around and fought each other, the only country that could mediate would really be the United States.

Therefore, it was necessary to leave some room for North Korean intervention.

Come to think of it, there’s also Japan. The theory of yellow peril [a racist theory about East Asians being a threat to the Western world] was gradually disappearing after the bubble burst in the 1980s, but it was still an era when it hadn’t completely subsided, so even if I said to check Japan, people would say ‘At this time?’, but there was no reason to oppose it.

An ally is an ally in name only. Why should I look after them when they are trying to bite me at every chance they get? More than anything else, the last time I saw Japan, they were already trying to completely break away from the influence of the United States. They were hedging between China and the United States, and wasn’t the F-35 loss incident the final blow? The canopy and other parts were found, but the most important fuselage was not found. The reason was frankly limited to the realm of speculation, but it must be related to China.

Or maybe the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force is just a moron.

“By the way, Europe really has no room to intervene.”

Russia and Europe have completely lost their minds. The United States could join in, but there was no profit. Profit. If it were a country with plenty of oil like Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, it would be different. Why touch Iraq, which is called the poor country of rocks? It’s not that oil doesn’t come out of Iraq, but it’s not so tempting that I want to eat it while spending all the precious war expenses.

The attitude that the United States needs now is not direct power projection, but to work hard to sell things to Europe like World War I. There will probably be many cases of them reaching out to this side in the future. Especially if bombs start going off all day long near Iraqi oil fields or military bases.

If they can be so arrogant even after fully tasting the worst part of terrorism, that’s a great thing in its own way, and if they bow their heads and come in, no way! No way! Either rip them off as much as possible or exclude them.

“Well, still, there should be a decent diplomatic line in Europe, right?”

If I really cut it off completely, I would definitely go down in history as the president who messed up diplomacy the most. I don’t want that. No, of course not.

Well, that’s that. When I think about it, this is a dream match like no other. They are all countries that have great grand titles, although they have weakened to the point of being nothing more than past glories. The British Empire, the Soviet Union, the First French Empire, the Third German Reich. Let’s exclude Italy.

They were beaten by the relatively strong Austrian Navy, lost to Ethiopia, which they looked down on as an uncivilized country, and even struggled against Greece in World War II, so they reached out to the Nazis. The problem with Greece at the time was that they only had motorcycles as armored power.

What kind of evil spirit possessed Italy that they have only been getting beaten since the modern era.

“Surely they won’t get beaten this time too, right?”

Surely not! Haha!