George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 356

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“Starting is half the battle.” There’s a saying like that. It means that starting is as important as half the task, and some people interpret it to mean that it’s better to start than not to start at all.

Anyway, Bush thought all those bastards who spouted such nonsense should just drop dead. Of course, the ancient philosopher Aristotle, who first brought those words into the world, had long since passed away.

“Is this some kind of joke? ‘Starting is half the battle,’ my ass.” No matter how many times I look at this mountain of insane reports, it doesn’t get any smaller. It wasn’t just because the sheer volume was crazy.

At least the skyscraper back then was organized. I mean, it wasn’t a single, whole skyscraper, but a skyscraper made of various reports and documents, so once you read one report, you could immediately extract the main points, sign it, and pass it on.

So, if you ask, ‘Was this East Iraq report not organized at all?’ that’s not quite right either, because it was at least categorized. The problem was that it was just a broad classification. Infrastructure devastated by the war was integrated into the national situation, individuals related to terrorists were integrated into the personal details of key figures, and prospects for the reconstruction of East Iraq were integrated into the economy.

The problem was that all the data was a massive chunk of information. That meant I had to read it all, and…

“Do you remember that villa you told me to buy?”

“Villa? Ah, you mean the farm.”

“Yeah, that. The farm you recommended I buy to change my image before the election. I haven’t been able to drink since then.”

Bush swallowed the words ‘Instead, I’m drinking tasteless vegetable juice,’ put down his pen, and massaged the back of his head, which was getting tighter and tighter.

“Why the farm all of a sudden…?”

“There’s a large area there where we can have a campfire.”

“I know.”

“I was thinking it would be perfect to use the guys who wrote this as fuel and the reports as firewood, and just throw them all in there and start a fire.”

“That won’t do.”

“Damn it. This is the worst report I’ve ever seen. If it weren’t an important document, I would have used it as kindling right away. Why does the fact that a sheep from some unheard-of Iraqi farm has alopecia have to be written here?”

“That’s interesting. As a matter of fact, we’re having lamb for lunch today. It’s high in protein and good for your health.”

“Damn it. I want to reject this report right now.”

But that was impossible. All the key people involved in this report were on vacation. I mean, I could just call them back, but I thought it was going too far to mess with their vacation.

It was definitely not because of the president’s past grievances of having things always blow up whenever he went on vacation, forcing him to return to the White House.

Bush continued to read this unnecessarily detailed report.

In fact, protecting Kuwait was just an excuse; this was what he had been looking forward to the most.

“What is this? There are so many guys involved in the attempted Paris terror attack?”

The attempted Paris terror attack refers to the hijacking that occurred when leaders from various countries gathered. In particular, the ‘arms dealer’ who supplied the hijacking means was caught. This guy was the most vicious of all, and he was involved in quite a few cases, not just this one.

“How would you like to deal with them?”

“Well, what do you think is the standard that separates humans from animals?”

It was a truly absurd statement that didn’t fit the context. To be precise, humans are also animals, but perhaps that wasn’t the answer he wanted. Rather, it must have meant the intelligent being. That is, the standard that separates beasts from humans.

“Hmm, wouldn’t it be tools?”

“That’s true, but if you think that way, you can count monkeys as humans.”

The chief of staff was silent. Of course, he could refute it, but it didn’t seem like that refutation would lead the story in a beneficial direction.

“Well, it’s a question that has no definitive answer. You can say whatever you want. But at least that’s what I think, what separates humans from beasts is ‘human rights.’ It’s obvious, but animals don’t have human rights. Some people babble about animal protection laws and say that animals also have rights, but who gave them those rights in the first place?”

“It’s humans. Humans like us,” Bush added, bringing another report to his hand. It was another terrorist’s personal information.

“Human rights are ultimately the rights that humans have. It is said to have been granted by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and our American Declaration of Independence says that it is an inalienable right, and even some unheard-of miscellaneous theories. Anyway, so the conclusion is that human rights are ultimately won by powerful humans themselves. The Declaration of Independence did not deal with the human rights of blacks or Asians at the time. They didn’t have human rights back then. Did they even see them as human? So why do they have human rights now? Because they fought for it themselves. They made it impossible for whites to endure without bringing out equality. Today, human rights are rights that humans should naturally enjoy, but power is needed to maintain that naturalness. So, in other words, human rights are ‘power.’ To be honest, I don’t know much about philosophy. No, I did learn it in college. But I can’t say I know it well. That’s why I can only say it this way. But I don’t think anyone here can object to it right now. So, the most important conclusion.”

Bush picked up another report and finished his long speech. The chief of staff’s expression was strangely distorted. It was because Bush’s words were rambling and jumping all over the place. It was a form in which he added this and that to what he wanted to argue, so it was not strange that the chief of staff was confused.

“The Vice President and some Republicans seem to be thinking of building a prison in Guantanamo [a US military prison located in Cuba] and throwing them in there. They don’t treat terrorists like people, but they are still people. Even if they are devilish humans who enjoy people suffering and dying, they are still people. If they are people, they have human rights.”

In other words, it was a blatant statement that the most powerful man in the world was George W. Bush, and that he even determined their human rights. Human rights are power. The powerful seize human rights. So the most powerful can also adjust human rights.

“Then shouldn’t they bear as much obligation as the rights they have enjoyed as human beings?”

Terrorists who could be called key figures captured in East Iraq were imprisoned in a prison boasting the highest level of security, called a clean hell, so that they would never see the light of day again. If you ask how this was possible, it was because they were not on death row.

In fact, even if it wasn’t Bush’s decision, so many death row inmates would simply be a mass slaughter. Of course, even if it’s imprisonment, it’s still a waste of management costs to feed and bathe each person, but they would turn into useful cards depending on the situation.

First of all, they could be transformed into diplomatic negotiation cards with Europe. As soon as the war in East Iraq started, the UK, Germany, and France were clamoring for their extradition. The funny thing is that even in the midst of all this, they never expressed their intention to send troops.

The reason was simple: their national power had weakened that much. The country really had to save every penny, let alone the people.

Anyway, the UK has sacrificed to keep up with the US, and Prime Minister Tony Blair has a lot of grievances, so it’s time to appease him in various ways. As soon as they captured the leaders and key figures of several terrorist organizations that caused terrorism in the UK, they immediately handed them over from East Iraq to the UK.

In addition, they could use the heads of terrorist organizations to which other people belong as bait to wipe out the remnants. In fact, humans who have accumulated karma throughout their lives have endless uses.

“England, France, Germany, India, Russia, China, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Mexico… Hmm, if I list them, I’ll end up saying the names of all the countries on Earth. Anyway, there are so many people who want them. I’m so jealous of their popularity.”

“We’re not going to give up all the captured terrorists. We need to have something to say to our people. By the way, China.”

That’s right. It wasn’t just Middle Easterners who were caught in East Iraq. When I lined them up, it was a human race museum more than the United States, and there were also Chinese people among them.

If you ask who these guys are, they were the ones sent by the warlords during the last Chinese civil war. It was a trace of trying to attract even one more foreign power. However, with the United States standing behind them with their arms folded and watching with their eyes wide open, there was no way any country would take their side.

So, in the end, they had to choose from abnormal countries and reach out, and East Iraq was one of them. There was an exchange between them, and they were not terrorists, but suspects with terrorist charges. And the Communist Party. To be exact, Li Keqiang wanted them.

“I see. That’s good. How’s the situation in China? Put this damn report away and bring that one.”

Around this time, China, where the fire of the civil war had been extinguished by water that humans could not handle, was shrouded in gloom. It was a natural story.

Both the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Tibet Autonomous Region, which had been incorporated in modern times, became independent, and the area once called the Central Plains was completely devastated by the war.

The places that barely escaped the direct impact of the war were all flood victims, and most of them were unable to return to their hometowns. The civil war is over, but those who defected from the rebels or remnants have turned into bandits to solve their hunger, and bandit groups are rampant throughout China. At this point, it was strange to be able to have hope anymore.

All that remained was the surplus air power that had been received from the United States in exchange for the economy. Most of them are F-16s, which are low- to mid-priced products, so they are just a quantity, but even with that, China is still the strongest in Asia.

However, even if the sky falls, there is a hole to escape from. Even in a terrible situation where only despair can be seen no matter which way you turn your head, there was one hope.

That was the liquidation of the Qing Dynasty bonds that had brought the situation to this point.