An Act of War

This is going to be a controversial one, so try to keep things civil in the comments. This is my take on Edward Cline's Our Post 9/11 World: A Ten-Year Retrospective. This was brought to my attention by Ephraim ben Raphael, whose take on this work was the basis for his Objectivist GITMO (his notes can be seen on my cover of that). Since I like my dystopias, I decided to do a straighter cover of Cline's story, without the silly "Muslims are battle droids and will deactivate if you destroy Mecca" nonsense. I was also inspired by Silas-Coldwine's The Eurabian Twist and Mattystereo's When China Rules the World.

Needless to say, this doesn't reflect my beliefs. But if the things I make do reflect my beliefs, I must be a fascist, Stalinist, Objectivist, imperialist, monarchist theocratic Sith lord who worships the Chaos gods. And I'm only half of those things! This also doesn't reflect what I think would happen if the Bush administration had done what it did in Cline's story. In reality, I think such acts would lead to nuclear war (would Moscow and Beijing allow nuclear belligerence of that scale slide? I think not), but I don't want to do another nuclear holocaust map. I'm also going for my standard "everyone's a bad guy" interpretation of events, so if you think X or Y is being demonized, that isn't the intent. Well, I guess it is, it's just universal demonization.

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America's reaction to the 9/11 attacks was, needless to say, excessive. Invade the country where the attackers are hiding? Justifiable. Invade a totally different country? You'll get critiqued heavily for it, but it won't shred international relations. Using nuclear weapons against the terrorists, and then against other people in the region you don't like, and then topping that off by nuking their religious sites and invading OPEC nations to secure their oil for yourself? That's what those in the political science and international relations community call "too fucking far."

The Bush administration, and America as a whole, never really recovered from their egregious actions. Bush was almost impeached after the nuclear attacks on Saudi Arabia - an American ally - but he managed to get away with declaring a state of emergency and suspending Congress for the rest of his first term. The attacks by Muslims, foreign and citizen, who were a little ticked off that the Americans nuked their holy site and killed tens of thousands of pilgrims, helped the narrative of America being at war with the Muslim world. The entire Muslim world. That many citizens expressed their displeasure with the erosion of civil liberties and the mass murder abroad further ushered in the creation of a police state. The Department of Homeland Security, the umbrella department which included the NSA, FBI, CIA, and eventually even the National Guard, established an iron grip over the country. Elections were suspended for 2008, as attacks and riots continued, and only resumed in 2016. Bush himself did step down after his two terms were up, but was succeeded by Vice President Cheney, who in turn was succeeded by John McCain.

The Middle East was occupied, its oil wells seized by American corporations. Venezuela was also invaded to "liberate" it from Hugo Chavez, placing more of the world's oil in America's hands. Israel took over the Sinai, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. While the Israelis have prospered economically - thanks in no small part to generous aid from the United States - it is a paranoid prosperity. Israel is now an even worse police state than the United States, with all Muslim Arabs expelled from the country and into the chaos beyond. Walls and fortifications surround Israel, and the Israelis have finally made public their nuclear arsenal - and their willingness to use it indiscriminately if the State of Israel faces annihilation.

America did prosper in the post-war era; having control of the world's oil supply allowed them to make money hand over fist, even from states that now despised them, much as the Saudis did before their destruction. But this prosperity was superficial. It was the elites who made the most from the seized oil wells; benefits did trickle down, both through the creation of new jobs, expansion of government programs, and the seizure of assets of "enemies of the state," but these were intended to be panaceas to prevent outright revolt in the United States. America's economy became autarkic, as other states refused to trade with them; this had a detrimental effect on short-term prosperity, with the layoffs of 2008 and 2009 almost toppling Bush and Cheney, but as more manufacturing jobs returned to the United States, there was brief stability. And even this prosperity did not last. As war expenditures grew, benefits at home were cut back. Many states, China and Europe and particular, turned to Russia for energy, rather than continue to deal with the Americans. Now the businesses are starting to collapse again, and America may have to resort to further oppression to keep things in order.

Unsurprisingly, America's actions transformed it into a pariah state. NATO was dissolved when its other members condemned the United States' actions and realized that they may become targets for retaliation themselves. The European states generously allowed refugees from the irradiated, war-torn Middle East into their countries. However, many of the refugees were already radicalized by imams who preached that they were living in the End Times, and that the West was their enemy. Radical Islamists made no distinction between America and Europe; their anger was directed at the entire West. Rallies turned into riots, which turned into seizing city blocks. This prompted the far right to rise in popularity in Europe, as they pointed to the increasing instability of Europe. Some even created paramilitaries and unofficial police, which spent more time beating up brown people than they did protecting Europeans. The governments attempted to crack down on both, but only earned the antagonism of both sides. The average man was drawn to the extremists, as rising energy prices, the boldness of Russia to encroach on a Europe that had abandoned America, and the inability of Europe's leaders to address these issues effectively destroyed their credibility. Attempts to beef up security after race riots and terror attacks led to more unpopularity, and accusations that the Europeans were emulating the autocratic Americans. The situation came to a head in 2016, when civil order collapsed entirely in the heart of the European continent, Germany. An alliance of "Eurabian statelets" emerged to defend themselves against European governments, and the far right answered by creating their own fascist enclaves. The Russians took advantage of the situation, encroaching on eastern Europe and funding far right organizations. Instability led eventually to civil war and separatism, which continues to this day.

Perhaps the true winners of the War on Terror are the Russians and Chinese. Both have forged a strong alliance in the wake of the nuclear attacks, as they feared annihilation at the hands of the Americans. There were even plans to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the Americans, but fortunately cooler heads prevailed. The Russians and Chinese are both de facto autocracies with rather pervasive police states - thanks in no small part to Islamic extremism in their own borders - but they have become popular everywhere in the world that isn't the United States. They have painted themselves as a bulwark against American power, a defender of the Third World, and with the way the United States is acting, it isn't the most unrealistic narrative. Unfortunately, the Americans' President Butler has ambitious plans for the world. Believing that the destruction of the "Islamic threat" by nuclear fire was the best choice that could have been made, Butler is making preparations for a final war against America's enemies. Unlike his predecessors, Butler has no compunctions for letting the whole world - America included - burn, if he can rule the ashes.