George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 359

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So, did West Iraq, which enthusiastically shouted ‘Yes’ to unification with the United States and accepted East Iraq, return to its former state? The answer is, of course, ‘No.’

One might think that a country divided for such a short time wouldn’t harbor such deep-seated national sentiments, but in reality, they were quite profound. This stemmed from the unique circumstances surrounding the division.

It wasn’t a sudden, magical split. Instead, people moved en masse across the borders to the east and west according to their political leanings, a flow that neither West nor East Iraq could, or perhaps even wanted to, stop at the time.

West Iraq, while perhaps needing to stop it, believed those crossing the border were secretly aiming to overthrow the state, branding them as reactionaries or terrorists. East Iraq attempted to prevent the outflow of manpower but lacked the resources to do so effectively.

Moreover, attempts to stop them involved threats of violence, which only reinforced the belief that staying meant certain death. As a result, Iraq was completely divided, like estranged siblings.

But now, to reunite? It wasn’t as simple as embracing the people of East Iraq. Those who deliberately stood by and watched people cross the border, fearing they would become reactionaries threatening the system, wouldn’t suddenly develop compassion.

In short, it meant expelling all the people who didn’t fit their mold. Thanks to the military’s actions, an anti-Western sentiment had also taken root to some extent. Furthermore, although the military was gone, their desire for independence and self-reliance from foreign powers was definitely inherited by the current government and the people, whether they liked it or not.

Of course, the easiest way was to eliminate as many anti-establishment figures as possible. The term ‘eliminate’ here meant not only suppression or extermination through the military and police but also mobilizing all possible means.

Whether it was through subtle torture, converting them with money or power, suppressing them with the military and police as mentioned above, or even deporting them, the goal was to reduce their numbers.

Of course, completely eliminating anti-establishment figures is absolutely impossible. So, they target influential figures. Even if those without power gather to some extent, they are not even a threat. West Iraq is not a truly democratic country, and the citizens who form the basis of votes have not turned their backs on them.

Bringing in foreign powers who like to interfere in other countries might complicate diplomatic relations, but conversely, it also means that all they can do is just that.

Thus, what West Iraq preferred most after taking over East Iraq was, surprisingly, deportation. Since the whole world, at least the Middle East, was in complete turmoil due to war, they could handle it without dirtying their own hands.

And that’s exactly what happened. At least, from the perspective of other countries, deportation seemed more gentle than massacre or oppression, and it seemed like a pretty good alternative.

The only thing they left out was that those deported people were gradually flowing into Europe via the Middle East. Of course, most of them became victims of the raging wars in the Middle East along the way, but still, a considerable number reached Europe, and now Europe has truly reached its limit.

Even with the existing refugees, they were already overwhelmed, but with the addition of a large number of refugees due to the war in the Middle East, the situation became unimaginably dire.

In this situation, the first to respond strongly to the refugees was France. More precisely, it was not the French government but the French people who initiated the response. Their past experiences had fostered extreme discrimination against Middle Eastern people, and the people started a conflict with the refugees.

They engaged in beatings and discrimination. The government simply remained silent. Naturally, the police always sided with the French in violent incidents, and even in murder cases, they almost always sided with the French unless it was a serious crime like a serial killing.

The conflict between refugees and citizens intensified day by day, but the refugees had many options. They moved from France to Germany, and scattered to Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy. Further east, there were Poland and Romania, and Turkey, which was a little more friendly compared to the Western world.

However, it wasn’t that refugees were necessarily flocking to Europe. Some people went to Uyghur, which had become an independent state. Some went to Uyghur and then flowed into Pakistan or China, and then to Korea and Japan.

However, their numbers were not large enough to become a social issue like in Europe. At most, there would be a news story or two about the lack of restaurants serving halal [food permissible under Islamic law] food.

Therefore, these issues were not even mentioned in the National Assembly, let alone dealt with. This was also because they were closer to illegal immigrants than refugees.

So, what issues are being dealt with in the Korean National Assembly right now?

“It’s going to be hard to see unanimous agreement between the ruling and opposition parties now. Well, it was strange all along.”

Hyun Won-seop sighed as usual.

From people who are not interested in politics to those who wear the badge of a National Assembly member on their chest, everyone thought, ‘Now is the moment to decide the fate of this country for the next hundred years.’

So, the ruling and opposition parties have been trying to align their opinions in a stable direction to bring out the best.

If this is due to someone’s ‘external pressure,’ this time it was absolutely not. The president did not have that much power, and the people had no reason to exert that much pressure.

It was an agreement that arose voluntarily from the ruling and opposition parties themselves.

However, that does not mean that there was no conflict at all. It is impossible for each other’s ‘best’ to be the same in the political arena.

Each has their own best, and each has their own worst. And usually, in the political arena, the other party’s best is the same as the worst that the main party thinks.

Moreover, how can public officials only think about public affairs? The government of a capitalist country is originally composed of those who want to make a fortune, so how can the members of a corrupt government not pursue their own interests and use their power only in the right places?

That is impossible even if you die and come back to life. It is absolutely impossible unless human beings are created from scratch, or genetic engineering is highly developed and a new humanity replaces the existing humanity.

Depending on the party’s will and personal inclinations, the best has changed every time. Only when the cheap magic badge that produces what you want just by wearing it seems to be really peeling off, they reduced and narrowed their opinions as much as possible to preserve it.

They did their best to stabilize the area that used to be North Korea and to withstand the aftermath. As mentioned above, there was conflict. However, the conflict was resolved at an unprecedented speed.

Comparable to this was the occasional surprise passage of bills. Anyway, just as the saying that water and oil cannot mix has become a thing of the past due to the development of science, the great integration of the ruling and opposition parties has also become a thing of the past.

The five provinces in the North, which are still called North Korea by the public, have been completely taken over in an administrative sense, and the economy has been stabilized to some extent. The former is a total victory created by grinding Korean civil servants, while the latter was simply thanks to the investment and protection of the United States.

However, even stability through foreign powers is still stability. Moreover, since the country has always been surrounded by the world’s top five powers, the national sentiment itself was not a problem because it could not survive without political maneuvering. It was a serious problem that the country’s economy depended on other countries, but there was no other way at the time.

Furthermore, the decisive event that divided the ruling and opposition parties again was that the US aircraft carrier fleet would be stationed for the time being. This is very short, but it is an absolute security guarantee as long as Bush is president. Opinions diverged on the military budget, and they went back to the way they were.

“Another fistfight? If we had a National Assembly member like Aleksandr Karelin [a famous Russian wrestler and politician] in our country, everyone would be quiet. It’s a shame.”

“Ah, you mean that human weapon?”

The reason why the Russian political arena, where fistfights are as frequent as in Korea, has been quiet recently is because of that guy. He is a former monster wrestler who is 193cm tall and weighs 135kg, and if he uses his fists, the person he hits will definitely die. It’s not just a metaphor, they really die.

It’s not like they are athletes with better physical conditions, and amateurs who have only been sitting at desks can’t withstand his punches. So, in the Russian political arena, there is a strange scene where they cry but only look at each other and still have a somewhat gentlemanly discussion.

“What does the President think about this matter?”

It meant the debate that finally divided the integration of the ruling and opposition parties. To be exact, it was the timing that divided it, not the topic, but what does it matter? In the end, doesn’t it mean that we have finally returned to those days?

“It’s a damn thing. We can finally get out of the war, and then the next decision is a new war! It’s ridiculous.”

The Korean National Assembly wants to participate in the war in the Middle East. This is because they believed that their excellence had been proven in the wars in which Korea had participated. Originally, those who would have vehemently opposed it because of the public sentiment are now advocating it because the voters who would take care of the public sentiment want the war.

The public would not want an all-out war that would determine the fate of the country, but they felt that it was right to dispatch a volunteer army. This is because the Korean government and the United States have been promoting the dispatch as a just war for democracy and against terrorism.

The problem is that the Korean military, at least the troops being dispatched, were among the top five in the world. The systematic and harsh training tailored to the battlefield to be dispatched is one thing, but from the beginning, they selected elite troops. If you train those elites in actual combat, what remains is of course the best of the best.

Moreover, unlike the Korean Ministry of National Defense, which is mired in defense corruption, they were receiving continuous feedback from the field and supplying materials generously, and the weapons were also being improved repeatedly. In particular, in the case of the K3 [Korean light machine gun], which constantly caused accidents in the Chinese civil war, it was judged to be a design defect, and it was feared that the improved parts and the current parts would be mixed and cause accidents, so they gave up on the improvement and started developing the next light machine gun early on.

The materials mentioned here include not only gun parts and combat rations but also a large number of donated goods supported by domestic large and small businesses.

“To be exact, it’s a dispatch. Not an all-out war between countries.”

“What’s the difference? It costs the same amount of money, and people die the same way. The war we should fight is a defensive war to protect our land and people, not a war of aggression.”

“Do you think that guy will be elected for a third term?”