George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 307

The Great America of George W. Bush – Episode 306

After a private conversation with the Vice President, Bush delivered a speech stating, ‘The truly right choice is one made by the people.’ In a way, it was an act of shifting responsibility to the public, and many pointed this out. However, the voices criticizing or condemning Bush weren’t particularly loud.

Thus, a public vote was conducted through lawful and fair procedures.

There was no guarantee that fraudulent voting wouldn’t occur, but with proper oversight from above, it was difficult to manipulate things significantly. Even if one tried, it could only be done on a small scale. And whether that could have a meaningful impact on the voter turnout was another question.

And there were no surprises.

The prevailing sentiment was against the expansion of the Patriot Act, and America was full of people who didn’t want to further erode the principles of liberalism. From the start, the Bush administration’s methods, such as suppressing the press and subtly but actively intervening in the market, made American citizens feel that their freedoms were being dulled and eroded in various ways.

In the midst of this, a citizen-led vote provided an opportunity to reaffirm that this country was once again a land of freedom. How could one not be pleased?

The Republican Party and other proponents were quite taken aback, but even more surprised were Afghanistan and Israel. Israel, which shared similar ideologies with the Vice President and had expected the tide to turn in favor of the proponents, was especially dismayed. In Afghanistan, there were plans to emulate some of the laws coming out of the United States. In fact, it was more of an attempt to ride the coattails of the trend, but this in itself was evidence that the Afghan president was on his last legs.

The Afghan president, former King Mohammad Zahir Shah, was the one who brought the United States into the country, but he was also an anti-American figure who sought to exclude the United States from the nation’s sphere of influence. Well, it wasn’t quite right to call him anti-American.

Rather than being anti-American, he was ‘concerned about excessive American intervention.’ It would be a lie to say he wasn’t worried after seeing the state of western Iraq, and there was no guarantee that his chosen successors wouldn’t become American puppets after he stepped down.

Humans are naturally drawn to greater power, and the United States was Afghanistan’s biggest benefactor. Whether in terms of aid or trade, it was the same. Was the modern-day Democratic Republic of Afghanistan a country created by the hands of Afghans?

The United States overthrew the Taliban regime and established it with their own hands, handing it over to Mohammad. Of course, Mohammad accomplished the details himself, but the tools and capital used for that were ultimately from the United States.

Initial capital for oil drilling and refining, as well as for primary to tertiary industries, had to rely entirely on aid from the United States, and the lithium from the small salt lake in the midwest, Afghanistan’s lifeline, was entirely in the hands of the United States. They were handing over lithium from the salt lake, known as the world’s largest deposit, at a fairly low price.

It was a heartbreaking situation, but it was an inevitable price to pay for aid. At least for now, the aid coming from the United States far exceeded the value of exporting lithium to other countries at a fair price, even if it might change later.

Anyway, looking at the statue of U.S. President George W. Bush in the square, a corner of his heart ached. It was true that he had come this far thanks to that man, but that didn’t mean he could make the country act as if it would die if the United States told it to.

‘It seems impossible that I will ever see a scene in my life where I openly defy the United States,’ Mohammad thought.

Mohammad thought that while he could somehow smooth over absurd demands like ‘Sell your territory’ or ‘Hand over your people,’ he had to silently accept demands for participation in wars or unfair trade practices.

In fact, demands for participation in wars were natural. Afghanistan was a U.S.-friendly nation, albeit a bit tarnished, and was being groomed as a champion to project influence in the Middle East along with Israel. Especially the Afghan army, which had grown to be one of the top one or two in the Middle East.

This was possible in a country where the army had been established for less than 10 years, entirely thanks to massive U.S. aid. Everything from tanks to personal firearms was domestically produced under U.S. license. Not all of it was state-of-the-art, but the fact that the army, which had to arm itself with whatever the donor country gave it, was unified with a single type of armament was a significant achievement.

In terms of trade, the United States was unilaterally buying Afghan products. Nothing more, nothing less. To be precise, it was thanks to the Bush administration’s extensive promotion of the event of uprooting the existing Afghan regime, the Taliban, establishing a pro-American regime, and placing it under U.S. influence.

There was a great deal of interest in Afghanistan in the United States, and factories that suddenly had customers were able to produce goods and make ends meet. This trend would continue for at least three years.

Anyway, that was fine, but the problem was that the general public had a vague longing for the United States. This was somewhat predictable from the moment the United States did not directly rule Afghanistan or put someone else in charge, but instead appointed Mohammad as its proxy.

Mohammad was a person who wanted to distance himself from the United States but couldn’t bring himself to do so. If it were someone else, they might try to break away from the United States by making reckless moves, but Mohammad couldn’t do that.

He held the grand titles of guardian of the old conservatives and former king, but Mohammad himself prioritized national revival, even if it meant changing the people’s lifestyles or national sentiment, i.e., traditions. Weren’t traditions supposed to change with the times?

He had expected them to use American products and eat American beef, but seeing his own people gradually moving beyond halal food and even consuming pork, breaking away from Islamic influence and achieving complete secularization, he sometimes questioned whether this was really the right thing to do.

In any case, since it was impossible to remove the American influence, it wasn’t such a bad option to accept it further and become more Americanized. Of course, there were problems. These were people who had grown up under the Taliban regime, with oppression and distorted traditions in the name of maintaining power, let alone openness.

Some welcomed this active U.S. intervention, but others opposed it. There were those who argued that foreign powers should be pushed out, even if it meant the entire country would be reduced to ashes again like western Iraq. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes. And so, the Afghan people said of the United States:

‘There’s a reason why great powers are great.’

It was a bit of a problem that they were praising the United States as if it were a trend, when there was nothing more foolish than relying on foreign powers.

And Israel. Israel was genuinely quite taken aback. In particular, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had taken a significant blow as he had made a near-gambling move, and his political base itself was greatly shaken, causing Ariel Sharon to have a seizure.

Not figuratively, but on November 21, 2006, he collapsed due to a long-term illness, high blood pressure. The problem was that he suffered an ischemic stroke due to high blood pressure, leaving him bedridden. It was the result of excessively consuming high-sodium, high-calorie foods and high-alcohol beverages, abusing a body that screamed even when wearing the right-sized bulletproof vest.

Upon hearing the news, Bush muttered, ‘He lasted almost a year longer than history.’ In any case, Ehud Olmert took over as acting leader in place of the fallen Ariel Sharon, and as it became clear that Sharon was no longer able to perform his duties, he effectively became the 16th Prime Minister and was expected to inherit the acting Prime Minister position soon.

Naturally, Europe, which had expected to follow the prevailing trend, was also quite perplexed. From the start, the counter-terrorism laws enacted by each country of the EU were benchmarked against the U.S. Patriot Act. These laws were greatly expanded and modified to suit the circumstances of each country.

Among them, the most embarrassed was the United Kingdom, and Tony Blair even went so far as to have a direct conversation with George W. Bush.

Tony Blair pressed for information about the internal affairs of the United States. However, the only answer Tony Blair could get from his conversation with Bush was, ‘A law that the people don’t want is not a law.’

Who doesn’t know that? But if the people want a law that gives them 100 million every day, can the government enact it? Isn’t it the government’s job to reflect the will of the people and adjust it to the realities of the situation?

Was that really the man who loved a strong government more than anyone else?

Questions led to more questions, but he intuitively realized that unless they both stepped down from their positions and had a conversation in a closed environment, it would be impossible to resolve these questions for the rest of his life, and he decided to focus on domestic affairs.

Anyway, there was a big problem at home. After all, wasn’t the origin of all the surveillance and wiretapping being discussed now the United Kingdom? If you were to think of a country of espionage, it would undoubtedly be the United Kingdom.

And what about the countless CCTV cameras installed everywhere? It’s no coincidence that the origin of *1984* [a dystopian novel by George Orwell depicting a surveillance state] is the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom was gradually and steadily castrating freedom.

The problem was that Northern Ireland was vehemently opposed to this. Demonstrations were taking place as often as three or four times a day, and most of them were Irish nationalists.

So the point wasn’t ‘We don’t like this law, so please fix it!’ but ‘We don’t like this law, so we’re going to become independent!’

Of course, the United Kingdom had no intention of listening to this. Rather than listening to it, they were thinking of supporting the unionists to stop the protests. And that’s exactly what happened. In Northern Ireland, there were dozens of riots every day between British Commonwealth unionists and Irish nationalists.

In the midst of this, as the EU suffered a major blow in the Middle East, voices calling for withdrawal from the EU were rising. Tony Blair, the Prime Minister who had to lead these things, was going crazy.

While Tony Blair was looking for ways to calm the media, he desperately hoped that the EU would take some action, but the EU’s attention was focused solely on the Middle East.

To be precise, it was the issue of the Kurds, to whom the EU had promised independence.