George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 96

The Great America of George W. Bush – Episode 95 (96/377)

< Episode 95 >

The blaze rising from the island of Mindanao in the Philippines was a conflagration unlike any seen before. The initial explosion was powerful, but as gas canisters from homes, shops, gas stations, and other facilities exploded in a chain reaction, the fire spread uncontrollably.

The initial explosion destroyed the police station, fire station, and hospitals, throwing law enforcement into a temporary panic. This brief lapse proved fatal, driving the death toll into the thousands.

“Yeah! Burn it! Burn it all down!”

Watching the scene on TV, the perpetrators listened to the screams of the people and the ever-growing fire, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ three times in their secret base.

“Boss! It’s a great success! No organization in the Philippines has ever achieved anything like this!”

The man called Boss was sitting cross-legged in a folding chair, overjoyed at the news. He slapped his leg repeatedly with his palm. It didn’t seem to hurt, as the sound was far louder than normal applause.

The man’s appearance was peculiar. He wore a mismatched collection of military uniforms of indeterminate origin, topped with a bulletproof vest. However, the truly unusual thing was that his entire body was wrapped in bandages, from head to toe. This getup was simply to hide his scars and the pus mixed with blood that was still oozing out. The fact that it made him harder to identify was a bonus.

“Boss, what should we do next?”

They completely trusted the Boss. They had only been working with him for a short time, but he had demonstrated enough charisma and achieved enough results to take control of the organization. The Boss stroked his chin a few times before speaking in somewhat broken Tagalog [the primary language of the Philippines].

“Burn it.”

“Burn it more over there?”

The subordinate reflexively looked at the TV. The sound of something exploding inside a building was so loud that it drowned out the field reporter’s words. It was satisfying to broadcast the scene of heinous heretics fleeing divine punishment in the city of depravity.

“No, you idiots! Burn everything in the building. I mean, let’s get out of here! Erase all traces if you don’t want to get caught!”

The Boss’s words were clumsy, but the message was clear. Moreover, his pronunciation was becoming more like a native speaker’s as time went on, so much so that it would be difficult to tell he was a foreigner unless he took off his bandages.

In any case, the subordinates moved with precision at the Boss’s command. They had deliberately kept their luggage to a minimum in anticipation of such an event, so it didn’t take long for all the necessary items to be loaded into the car. Furthermore, they set fire to the small abandoned building to erase all traces.

Their base of operations was a camper van, the interior of which resembled a mobile command post. Important information was plastered all over the walls. A projector was mounted on the ceiling, and a laptop was set up for meetings.

The Boss, realizing that a unit’s combat power came from its budget rather than its ideology, personally used funds to build up the organization. As a result, it wasn’t military-grade, but from a technological standpoint, it was comparable to military equipment.

Perhaps that was why the subordinates were holding American-made M4s used by the military, rather than AK series replicas. They had somehow been smuggled into the black market after being captured in wartime, but after some modifications and the addition of various accessories to the Picatinny rail [a standard mounting platform for firearm accessories], they were as good as special forces weapons.

The subordinates were the same. Although they were still inexperienced, the more they trained, the more they showed movements comparable to those of elite units from developed countries. They were already as good as special forces when it came to demolition and concealment operations.

This was partly because the subordinates had been doing this kind of work for a long time, but it was also the result of the Boss’s systematic guidance and the subordinates’ dedication.

‘This al-Qaeda will be different!’

The organization was called al-Qaeda. Even though al-Qaeda had roots all over the world, it was still just a network of cells, so the name was often used for show. But from now on, things would be different.

First of all, the existence of the ‘Boss’ ensured legitimacy. Then, the organizational structure was streamlined, useless money-guzzling cells were eliminated, and only the proper groups were left. As the sources of income were expanded and closer ties were forged with existing Philippine criminal organizations, the organization was on a roll.

It hadn’t been long since the Boss had come to the Philippines, but the subordinates realized that this organization would grow into an unprecedentedly large and powerful force in the Philippines. In any case, the quick-witted subordinates knew who the Boss was, but no one dared to utter this fact.

“Boss! The American president you were looking for has made a statement!”

Upon hearing those words, his expression twisted into a demonic grimace of rage for a moment, before he regained his composure. There’s a saying that one can be overwhelmed by energy, and the Boss’s aura was so intense that it seemed to fit the situation perfectly.

“It’s being broadcast live on TV now.”

The projector in the camper van doubled as a TV. Everyone would be surprised to know how many technicians and how much money went into this seemingly ordinary little camper van. A small electronic sound came from the speakers, and then a news channel appeared.

「Therefore, the United States of America will not, under any circumstances, tolerate acts of terrorism that are directly opposed to humanity. First and foremost, we will prioritize cooperation with the Philippines, and we will provide as much counter-terrorism support as possible to the entire ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] region beyond the Philippines…」

After hearing that, one of the subordinates cursed in disbelief. The other subordinates responded by jumping up from their seats like a wave, but the camper van wasn’t very tall, so they ended up in an awkward position.

“Quiet!”

However, the Boss didn’t seem to like it, so he calmed the subordinates down. There are usually three routes by which terrorists obtain information. First, information that is publicly available, such as news and newspapers. The next is information that is exposed on the internet in an unguarded and disorganized manner, and the last is information that is traded among information brokers in the black market.

If you pay enough money, you can get your hands on the ‘real’ trends of each country, no matter how they were obtained. In any case, unlike other ordinary back-alley organizations that deal in drugs or smuggling, this is a matter of life and death, so it was incredibly difficult.

Al-Qaeda was also working hard on drug trafficking, but they clearly distinguished between means and ends. If the goal of other organizations was to accumulate wealth through drug trafficking, al-Qaeda’s goal was to secure funds for holy war through drug trafficking.

However, I do not deny that the means have become the goal, just like other organizations. They had been corrupted by the pleasure of money. It was commonplace for them to be caught by the police one by one or to have their seat money extorted by corrupt police officers. But now that the Boss reigns at the top of this organization, the line between means and ends will never be blurred again.

All funds will be used to conceal the organization, and the wealth gathered through drug trafficking will be used to pursue holy war rather than pleasure. After all, this kind of money is called black money in the world, so isn’t this a great honor for the money? Hasn’t black money been used for a sacred and holy holy war?

Anyway, the Boss, who had been staring intently at the screen showing the President of the United States, finally opened his mouth. As always, the Boss was unusually brief. However, none of the subordinates knew whether the Boss had always been like that or whether he was speaking briefly because he had to speak a foreign language.

“We need more funds.”

The ultimate goal was to dye the entire world with the single religion of Islam, and the country that was hindering them at the forefront was the world’s strongest country, the United States.

But ironically, it was a country that was endlessly vulnerable to terrorism. Recently, police officers have been keeping a close eye on terrorists, but that’s only limited to large-scale terrorism to some extent. Even with the massive increase in counter-terrorism spending, the United States is still a country where ordinary people with crazy eyes can fire guns indiscriminately.

In any case, apart from that, it was certain that the US President’s decision had made this planet a world where it was difficult for terrorists to live. Until now, the main sources of funding were drug trade, transactions with back-alley cartels, and tax collection within the al-Qaeda organization. In particular, in the latter case, normal economic activity was the main source of income.

In fact, not all al-Qaeda members were combatants, so there were those who wore the mask of model citizens and secretly provided al-Qaeda funds from behind the scenes. Even if they provided funds, it wasn’t that grand, and they paid a portion of their salary to al-Qaeda like tithing in Christianity.

In return, al-Qaeda was using a method of providing strength when an organization member encountered a difficult situation that they could not handle alone. For example, one man accidentally committed murder because his wife was having an affair and was about to go to jail, but al-Qaeda used its power to get him paroled.

As a result, the al-Qaeda led by the Boss had to pay the corrupt government more money than the man who had been paroled had paid to al-Qaeda for the rest of his life, but this dramatically increased trust in the fact that al-Qaeda was definitely protecting them.

The number of people secretly trying to contact al-Qaeda increased, and tax revenue increased. The security in the Philippines was one of the worst in the world. Since the police were not functioning properly, they had no choice but to lean on the only reliable criminal organization.

The Philippines was not a normal country. Local lords held each region tightly, and although it was not quite complete militarization, they held the private military groups, public power, and personnel authority, including the police. As a result, it was not uncommon for the heads of cartels to sit in high positions in the government.

“Boss. How are you going to get it?”

“We’ll raid another organization.”

The Boss said, releasing the safety on his gun. It was truly an ideal match between words and deeds.

“Another organization?”

“We’ll take over the area.”

With the Boss’s one word, a war between organizations was decided.

“Wait for me. George W. Bush!”

But they had no idea who they had messed with before they even touched the President of the United States.