George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 347

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“Even the most neutral reports say there’s a ‘gap between ideals and reality.’ I knew there would be growing pains, but it seems quite severe.”

Bush flipped through the report as if dumbfounded, then tossed it haphazardly onto his desk. It was too blatant a fact to be dismissed as mere ‘rumors’ spread by Korea, and too clumsy to be considered sophisticated ‘smear tactics.’

Even if he were to denounce it, it would be enough for the news to cover it; there was no need for the government to step in.

“The current Prime Minister of Japan is probably…”

“Abe Shinzo, sir.”

“Indeed, Abe.”

His reaction was closer to ‘That bastard would do something like this?’ than ‘That bastard is capable of this.’ This was because the Japanese government had been diligently building friendly relations in its diplomacy with Korea. As a result, the Korean government had also been conducting its diplomacy and even its diplomatic gestures in a friendly manner towards Japan.

“Has there been something that conflicts with their interests or understanding to the point where they would change their course recently?”

Normally, Bush, who was always concerned about the Korean Peninsula, would have known, but these were not normal times. In reality, the United States was in a quasi-war state due to the war in China. This was because there was a risk of nuclear weapons being launched.

Of course, this was not something that was being told to the public, but survivalists, who seemed ready to pack everything, including bunkers and emergency rations, all the way to the afterlife, had already begun preparing on their own. However, unlike the busy movements of the survivalists, hoarding did not occur, so the economy did not fluctuate wildly.

“As the President knows better than I do, they have always been enemies. There are so many conflicting interests and understandings that it’s hard to pick just one.”

“Still, there must be something. No matter how much gunpowder there is in a powder keg, it’s just gunpowder; it doesn’t mean there are many sparks.”

“If I had to pick one, the most recent issue that has started to emerge is the EEZ [Exclusive Economic Zone] problem.”

As he began to read the reports that had been piling up due to his focus on the Middle East and China, he roughly grasped what was happening. In fact, although they had been walking a friendly path, it was no exaggeration to say that virtually no issues had been resolved during that time.

The first and foremost issue was the comfort women issue, followed by the Yasukuni Shrine issue [a controversial Shinto shrine honoring war dead, including convicted war criminals]. There were many other points of contention, but most of the issues that were currently deepening the divide in national sentiment between the two countries stemmed from Japan’s colonization of Korea.

Therefore, it was inevitable that these issues would not be easily resolved. Of course, they could go back further to the Imjin War [a series of Japanese invasions of Korea in the late 16th century], but in normal relations, national sentiment might be a factor, but it wouldn’t lead to such mutual hatred in diplomacy.

“The 7th mining zone, huh? I certainly remember that.”

Before elaborating on the 7th mining zone, the reason Bush remembered it was because he had been royally screwed over regarding it. In a place where even Kim Kap-hwan couldn’t achieve proper development or even an agreement until his death, how much could a construction site foreman be screwed over? But surprisingly, it existed.

It was thanks to a movie of the same name based on this 7th mining zone. I won’t go into detail, but I’ll just mention that an important late-blooming romance failed because of this movie.

Anyway, as the 7th mining zone was re- spotlighted last year, the Communist Party had no choice but to side with Korea, given the circumstances. This was led by Li Keqiang, who figured that since they were in a hurry, they could roughly side with Korea for now and change their tune later.

In reality, this was somewhat true, and since they had even given away the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture [an autonomous region in China with a significant Korean population], they were in the mood to extract everything they could while keeping Korea happy to some extent. Moreover, they were well aware that the waters that Korea claimed as the 7th mining zone were not entirely within the East China Sea, and if they had to be precise, they were closer to Japan.

Furthermore, it was closer to the fact that they had agreed to ‘jointly develop’ the area rather than ‘ceding territorial waters’ by imposing the EEZ. Of course, they were too busy sorting out domestic affairs for the time being to care whether Korea was doing whatever they wanted with the 7th mining zone, but if Korea ever actually extracted oil from this 7th mining zone, they could just jump in and get a piece of the action.

In any case, it was a place that they didn’t want to pay much attention to right now, unlike China before the war, and the catalyst was that Korea had begun to jointly develop the waters it had named the 7th mining zone with China. In this process, Japan’s protests were mostly ignored. This was understandable, as Korea was carefully exploring the East China Sea in a way that didn’t overlap with Japan’s interests as much as possible.

‘This is a headache.’

He couldn’t easily take either side. Both Korea and Japan were important allies and partners for the United States. The Congress would probably side with Japan, but Bush wanted to side with Korea because of the nature of the content.

To be precise, he wanted to remain neutral, but the act of declaring neutrality was no different from supporting Korea. Think about it. If the United States declared neutrality, the only country opposing the joint development between China and Korea would be Japan, the party involved.

In any case, this situation was absurdly difficult.

“Let’s just pretend we don’t know about the situation for now. Maintain a consistent lack of response.”

“Understood.”

“The Three Gorges Dam is a bigger problem than the dispute between those two countries right now. If that collapses, everyone will really die.”

The Three Gorges Dam, which had already been receiving subtle attention, had now become a global concern. The front lines, which had been a mixed bag of everything from the interests of gossipmongers to the ebb and flow of battle results, were now focused solely on whether or not this dam would collapse.

Ironically, the Three Gorges Dam was receiving even more attention than it had when it was completed as the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant.

If it were due to a natural disaster, it might overflow, but it wouldn’t collapse. However, if multiple nuclear weapons were detonated, even the strongest dam would be destroyed.

If it were destroyed, the suppressed Yangtze River would be unleashed, literally destroying everything in its path, and China would fall into a true dark age.

The human resources that China had considered its greatest strength would evaporate, and even if the human resources were preserved intact, the destroyed cities could not be revived. It wouldn’t be possible even with tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. It was that kind of man-made disaster.

Due to the severity of the situation, even those who had previously opposed the Three Gorges Dam due to environmental concerns and had ridiculed it, saying that divine punishment would befall it, were now unanimously declaring that the dam must not collapse under any circumstances.

“But wouldn’t that be more advantageous for us?”

The more devastated China became, the more it would have to rely on the United States, a major player. If that happened, it wouldn’t be a dream to take over some territory if necessary, although China’s economy would be in trouble.

It wasn’t like the concessions of colonial empires like Hong Kong in the 19th century. It was about extraterritorial rights applied to overseas bases.

In reality, it was half under American influence. Autonomy wouldn’t be curtailed, but it would inevitably become a presence that would be concerned about in defense, whether they liked it or not.

Of course, since the United States was a democratic country, it would have to withdraw if China officially asked it to do so, but that was impossible for Li Keqiang’s China. Li Keqiang was already too intertwined with the United States, and the presence of the United States had become too significant to discuss anything without it.

However, this was not what Bush wanted.

“Are you telling me to abandon ‘ethics’?”

He had compromised with reality to some extent, but he had never openly ignored it. Normally, such diplomacy or politics would result in losses, but Bush’s rule was not ‘normal.’ Based on his future knowledge, he compromised on everything to the extent that he didn’t suffer losses, and he mitigated the losses from compromise by wielding the iron fist of the superpower United States as he pleased.

Bush thought of himself as not the best or the greatest, but at least the second best, and Kim Kap-hwan’s common touch and the goodness he had from the start forced him to walk this path, even if he didn’t like it.

“I’m just saying.”

Bush’s chief of staff, embarrassed by Bush’s firm resolve, took out the next report.

“So, is this our best option? Operation to suppress the silos with Delta Force, a special forces unit?”

“I think it’s the best operation for maintaining the peace that the President likes. As it is the US military, we cannot use this as a basis to launch missiles at the Three Gorges Dam. So, it’s the safest operation.”

Perhaps that’s why some of the generals were saying they should just launch them. After all, what did it matter if China was in chaos? Frankly, they didn’t care much if the Three Gorges Dam collapsed.

Of course, most people, like Bush, were praying that it wouldn’t collapse, attaching ethics and whatnot, but it was also true that there were quite a few people in the military who were hoping for the dam to collapse. It was only natural, as the news they brought back from every war was only of victory.

“That’s right. Even if the operation fails, we probably won’t be able to launch nuclear missiles. The moment we launch those missiles is the moment we break the shackles we’ve placed on China and the United States. However…”

Bush was being vague today. Everything was ambiguous, unlike usual, so it was understandable.

“With the cooperation of the Communist Party, all the silo locations have been identified… The two that were hiding as mobile launchers were caught by satellites. In this case, maybe the Air Force would be better.”

“Actually, there’s been a lot of talk about that already. The Air Force is desperate to use the F-22s that are eating up a huge budget. The President is protecting them now, but if they want to maintain them and produce as many as planned, they need results.”

The chief of staff didn’t say it, but the Army and Navy probably had something to say as well.

“Can’t we just do everything at once?”

“It’s not impossible, but isn’t it better to move as few troops as possible to maintain secrecy?”

“Then let’s do this. Delta Force will be deployed as Delta Force, and the Air Force will stand by. You never know, they might have a chance to shine.”

With the tacit approval of the Communist Party in China, some of the US troops who had been idle in Qingdao began to move.