MrP
Banned
If I may point out a recurring spelling mistake, old boy, I've noticed several instances of the possessive pronoun its being misspelled as it's
Did he change his hame in-story or is that a reference to the OTL joke?
Asami
Banned
If I may point out a recurring spelling mistake, old boy, I've noticed several instances of the possessive pronoun its being misspelled as it's
Did he change his hame in-story or is that a reference to the OTL joke?
That's probably my browser extension being a twit. I installed it for jokes.
And I'll edit that when I have a moment.
Asami
Banned
You killed Rachel and Chandler??
Aye. Both Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry were tragically killed in the wave of Islamic terrorism that shook the world in April 2002.
Culture: Friends (TV show)
Asami
Banned
(I'm actually working on Wan Li's term of office, but I'm stuck on a moral quandary. I'd love for some input on it if someone wants to PM me.)
Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China (and the World)
Culture: Friends
A history of Modern China (and the World)
Culture: Friends
The television series Friends was a well-known and critically acclaimed American sitcom that aired on the NBC network from September 1994 until its abrupt and totally undesired cancellation in May 2002. The show centers around a group of friends living in Manhattan. Rachel Greene, a spoiled rich girl-turned-working class American, Monica Geller, a formerly obese woman now working to be an aspiring top chef, Ross Geller, the aforementioned woman's brother, who is a professor and doctor in the field of dinosaurs, Chandler Bing, a middle-tier pencil pusher who covers up glaring insecurities through sarcasm, Phoebe Buffay, the oddball of the group whom is generally a hippie, and Joey Tribbiani, a typical New Yorker "jerk with a heart of gold" with a insatiable appetite for food.
These six friends live near each other, and often spend their times in Monica's apartment, or at "Central Perk", a coffee shop in the obviously named, Central Park.
After its launch in 1994, the show was lauded with critical success, catapulting it to the top of modern American sitcoms. The six cast members enjoyed their careers booming without end, and it seemed as if the show would forever brand itself into America's brain.
And it did, to some degree. However, in April 2002, during the wave of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism that shook the world deeply, two of the cast members were killed. Jennifer Aniston was killed in the Los Angeles International Airport bombing, while on her way to Burbank to film the show. Matthew Perry was killed in the D.C. nuclear attacks, as he had been in D.C. for an event at the White House.
The death of these two lead to the NBC to announce that production of Season 9 would be halted immediately, and that Season 8 would be concluded, and that after that, Friends would be cancelled. The show came to a conclusion with the two-parter episode The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, in which Rachel gives birth to her daughter, Emma. However, the show ends in a cliff-hanger, as Joey intentionally proposes to Rachel, leaving her shocked, and Ross, whom had just entered the room, stunned.
Many fans have expressed their sadness at the show's sudden cancellation, but in 2013, a sequel to the show, called As These Days Go By, lasted two years with David Schwimmer reprising the role of Ross Geller, who is raising Emma alone. He is the only Friends cast member to return to the set in this character capacity after the cancellation in 2002.
However, the show received less than anticipated reviews, and was cancelled by NBC in 2015.
Courtney Cox moved on from Friends, appearing in a number of films and television shows after that, but nothing on the same level of permanence as Friends.
Lisa Kudrow did similarly, moving on to not only appear in films and TV shows, but also to write and direct numerous screenplays and pilot episodes; netting herself several Emmys and an Oscar in 2007.
Matt LeBlanc, the fourth surviving member of Friends, almost immediately after the show was cancelled, joined the cast of Top Gear as a presenter, with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. He has remained at this position for the last decade, but has done other work in-between shooting Top Gear.
These six friends live near each other, and often spend their times in Monica's apartment, or at "Central Perk", a coffee shop in the obviously named, Central Park.
After its launch in 1994, the show was lauded with critical success, catapulting it to the top of modern American sitcoms. The six cast members enjoyed their careers booming without end, and it seemed as if the show would forever brand itself into America's brain.
And it did, to some degree. However, in April 2002, during the wave of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism that shook the world deeply, two of the cast members were killed. Jennifer Aniston was killed in the Los Angeles International Airport bombing, while on her way to Burbank to film the show. Matthew Perry was killed in the D.C. nuclear attacks, as he had been in D.C. for an event at the White House.
The death of these two lead to the NBC to announce that production of Season 9 would be halted immediately, and that Season 8 would be concluded, and that after that, Friends would be cancelled. The show came to a conclusion with the two-parter episode The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, in which Rachel gives birth to her daughter, Emma. However, the show ends in a cliff-hanger, as Joey intentionally proposes to Rachel, leaving her shocked, and Ross, whom had just entered the room, stunned.
Many fans have expressed their sadness at the show's sudden cancellation, but in 2013, a sequel to the show, called As These Days Go By, lasted two years with David Schwimmer reprising the role of Ross Geller, who is raising Emma alone. He is the only Friends cast member to return to the set in this character capacity after the cancellation in 2002.
However, the show received less than anticipated reviews, and was cancelled by NBC in 2015.
Courtney Cox moved on from Friends, appearing in a number of films and television shows after that, but nothing on the same level of permanence as Friends.
Lisa Kudrow did similarly, moving on to not only appear in films and TV shows, but also to write and direct numerous screenplays and pilot episodes; netting herself several Emmys and an Oscar in 2007.
Matt LeBlanc, the fourth surviving member of Friends, almost immediately after the show was cancelled, joined the cast of Top Gear as a presenter, with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond. He has remained at this position for the last decade, but has done other work in-between shooting Top Gear.
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All three sound pretty worrisome. But Overlord is probably the best shot at ensuring the region's stability, so that's my pick for now.
Hmm. Samson probably involves a lot of Israeli nukes flying in every direction, which probably means millions of dead people. If I remember correctly, the Arab-Israeli Wars (as would have been recognized OTL) were more or less butterflied away, so something that would lead to the Samson Option being invoked would be quite the shock.
Overlord brings to mind the D-Day landings, and the accompanying ideas of liberation and whatnot.
I have no idea what Triple could allude to, so out of curiosity I'll vote for that.
The last mention of Israel I could find comes from this post, and things seem peaceful if a bit tense. I'll predict that either a hardline Islamist (possibly Saudi-backed) or Pan-Arab faction comes to power in Egypt or one of the 'Triangle' states calling for the destruction of Israel, and upsets the balance of power in the region. Big nasty war ensues, with Saudis/Radical State(s) vs. Israel, with Iran intervening on the Israeli side to protect the regional status quo and maintain its own interests (and maybe snap up some majority Shiite regions in southern Mesopotamia if it thinks it can).
I might (almost certainly) be totally off, but tensions look to have been simmering in the Middle East for several decades between Israel and its neighbors without any sort of release or 1967-style cautionary tale.
Asami
Banned
Samson 0
Triple 1
Overlord 2
Voting is still active. The innocents are but the greatest casualties of darkness' arrival; and we cannot hope but do what we do to ensure the future of mankind.
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Gian
Banned
Anyone know how these people do ITLL:
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
and also the history of these famous animation legends. . .
Alex Hirsch
Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh
Steven Hillenberg
Rebecca Sugar
Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust
Genndy Tartarkovsky
and I also want a list of TTL Presidents of the Philippines
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
and also the history of these famous animation legends. . .
Alex Hirsch
Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh
Steven Hillenberg
Rebecca Sugar
Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust
Genndy Tartarkovsky
and I also want a list of TTL Presidents of the Philippines
Asami
Banned
We'll see what they're up to eventually.
It's a little early for most of these people to make an appearance in the timeline, considering that Gravity Falls, Phineas and Ferb, SpongeBob Square Pants, Steven Universe, Power Puff Girls, MLP and Dexter's Lab were all products of the modern 21st century.
It's only 2002, so basically, at the moment, only PPG, Dexter's Lab, and SpongeBob are really around, and PPG and SBSP are in their infancy still (both having started in 1998).
And re: Philippines... I'm not so good at that country's politics, but I'll try at some point.
Chapter XI
Asami
Banned
Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China
Wan Li (PPC)
(2002-2004)
"The Interim Chairman"
A history of Modern China
Wan Li (PPC)
(2002-2004)
"The Interim Chairman"
Wan Li served as the Chairman of the People's Republic of China for a brief two year period. While he was entitled to serve the remainder of Dai Xianglong's 6 year term of office, he felt it unseemly to support such a factor.
After extensive conversations with President Bush in the United States, Chairman Wan announced that elections would be held in early 2004, and the winner would serve the remaining four years of his term. This was accepted by the Congress of the People's Republic in a small formal vote, and Wan Li settled in to fulfill his duties as Chairman.
Some of the first policies undertaken by the Chinese government was to push hard on Islamic imams proliferating what they considered to be "seditious radical ideologies", and completely banned immigration from Islamic states into China barring "certain persons applying for refugee status." -- this policy was criticized in some neutral states, but not many openly objected due to large scale of fear and terror that had been rife across the globe.
In the time between April 2002, and the start of Operation Hammer of Dawn in September 2003, the geopolitical world stage changed quite rapidly. the People's Liberation Army, and the Chinese special services stepped up their intelligence campaigns in Africa, leading to the overthrow of the right-wing populist regime in Zaire in June, and the installation of a pro-Chinese "soft socialist" government, similar to the rest of Eastern Africa.
Emphasizing the growing spectre of radical terrorist elements, a wave of Islamism spread through out the Middle East. where as in states such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, no such efforts materialized, Sudan was one of the first nations to feel the heat, along with Yemen, Oman and the IC's neighbors in the Arab peninsula.
From July - October 2002, the government of Sudan collapsed in favor of an Islamist regime. To protect the Christians of the region, China stepped in and occupied Southern Sudan, formally bolstering the rebels they had backed -- the declaration of the Sudanese People's Republic had followed, showing full independence for the South Sudanese nation.
In the later months of 2002, the Islamist uprisings had swept through the Arab peninsula, engulfing Yemen and the smaller states under IC control; save for Oman, whose Ibadi militant government had joined the IC's alliance and had maintained their independence -- if only nominally.
Outside of Sudan and the Arabian Peninsula, the wave of IC sentiment caused the toppling of governments in Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal; all of whom declared themselves in "fraternity with the House of Islam in it's struggle against Chinese, American and Soviet imperialism," and vowed more attacks in the coming months.
While the Americans continued to plan their method of operations against the IC, the Chinese had made no such long-term plans, and had simply began to pummel the Islamic Caliphate and her allies with aerial attacks. Between Christmas 2002 and Easter 2003, China had dropped thousands of bombs over the Islamic Alliance's territory, and had killed hundreds of militants.
The Soviet Union's commitment to the conflict escalated after the IC detonated a car-bomb outside the Soviet embassy in Damascus and attacked a nightclub there as well. The secular dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad maintained a harsh response against the terrorists, and a number of Soviet agents joined in and, with American permission, began to stage bombing raids into Arabia from American allies Jordan and Iraq.
The unbottling of the nuclear genie showed itself once again in September 2003. The United States government announced it was ready for a "full measure of response" against the forces of Islamic terrorism. President Bush stated that, "the radicals of this faith have killed thousands of people world-wide through nuclear and biological terrorism. We cannot allow this to stand, and so we must strike in response."
The nuclear genie had been uncapped in 1999 after India and Pakistan had turned upon each other and turned each other to nuclear ash. The genie would return, humans admitted, because well, once we had a taste of the evils, how could we ever deny such things again?
The United States, during the early Cold War, out of general concern over the future of utilizing nuclear weapons, instituted a policy of "mutually assured destruction". However, after the 1999 Kargil War, the three major superpowers had coordinated a new nuclear doctrine -- retalliation, at least in a tactical sense, would be the order of the day for those launching nuclear attacks. However, terrorism hadn't been entirely covered, and in the year since the May attacks, the three superpowers leaders had debated over the proper proportion of response. Nobody wanted to turn Mecca or Medina into a total parking lot, that would've simply just turned into a whole mess of problems elsewhere.
In September 2003, the Islamic Caliphate cut a large swath through the heart of Jordan, and attacked Israel, the situation escalated significantly. The Islamic Caliphate, using aeroplanes seized from the runways of Jordan, began to pummel Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv, indiscriminately bombing whatever they could reach. This threw off the time-table set up by the three allies.
The three superpowers were further troubled when the Islamic Caliphate pushed heavily into Israel, threatening Jerusalem. Israel's government warned to the three powers that the Islamic Caliphate's invasion wouldn't be tolerated in the slightest, and that disasterous repercussions would follow. This warning went a little further than the three superpowers, coherently forming a general "warning" to the Islamic World -- if the IC didn't cease their invasion, bad things would follow.
The first use of nuclear weapons in the Islamic War was a tactical Israeli detonation in the West Bank, destroying a main highway intersection that lead into Jerusalem. This attack was undertaken during a number of Islamic Caliphate convoys moving into the area. At least 800 jihadis were killed in the explosion, and it marked the total uncapping of the nuclear genie once more.
Israel once again reiterated their willingness to use nuclear weapons on a greater scale, should the forces of the Islamic Caliphate insist on their war. While Israel refused to utilize tactical or strategic nuclear weapons against the Jordanian population or state (they //were// their allies, mind you), they had no qualms about targeting any city in Arabia, and they made that clear.
In the following days, the Israelis managed to push the Islamic Caliphate back several miles from Jerusalem, and a summit of a few neighboring nations was called together. Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Kuwait (which was a government-in-exile) met in Tel-Aviv to discuss the affairs. The Arab/Islamic nations expressed their concerns about Israel's threat to utilize nuclear weapons, and sought guarantees that Mecca and Medina would not be targeted.
Similarly, Israel expressed concern that none of the states that had called the meeting had deployed troops to help Israel out (save for Iraq and Kuwait, whom were involved in their own warfare against the IC.) -- the Israeli government, largely governed by liberals and leftists, made clear that they wanted peace and cooperation with the Palestinians and the Arab world. The last time Israel and the Arab world had gone to war, 1948, the West Bank and Gaza had been under Arab control, and Israel had largely respected that.
The meeting soon moved from a simple summit of concerns into a serious debate on the matters of the future of the Middle East -- if the Islamic Caliphate was blown into nuclear ash by the superpowers and Israel, how would reconstruction afterwards look -- a number of Egyptian, Syrian and Israeli representatives suggested seriously the establishment of a framework to establish a confederation of united states in the Middle East, to join together what time has largely driven apart.
The Israeli prime minister, Avraham Burg, was one such proponent of the idea. The Democratic Front and their coalition largely consisted of adherents to the doctrines of the prevalent communist ideologies in the People's Republic of China and Soviet Union, along with left-leaning liberals and "peaceniks", who sought a proper solution to the issues raised with the 1948 war.
From September 2003 to December 2003, the "Levantine Summit" frequently met in Tel-Aviv, or in other times, Cairo, Damascus, or other cities. The first settlement reached by the nations, was the formation of a "common cause alliance" between the signatory nations, aimed on defeating the Islamic Caliphate and "purging radicalism from the world". Egypt, Syria and Lebanon soon began to freely pool soldiers of Islamic faith to be used by the powers aligned against the Islamic Caliphate -- they knew that Mecca and Medina would have to be taken by force of arms, and they didn't want it turned into nuclear glass.
As a result of this war, in the Middle Eastern theatre, either for training or preparations for Operation Olympic, numerous countries began to form Islamic-only regiments. The United States, at the suggestion of many organizations, formed many divisions, including the Muhammad Ali Division, comprised of American adherents to Sunni or Shiite Islam, Nation of Islam, as well as expeditionaries from American allies such as Morocco, Turkey, Iran, and Nigeria (plus a few soldiers from the pools made available by the framework).
The Soviet Union fielded several divisions, largely comprised of Tatar Muslims, Turkic Muslims, Kazakhs, Dagestanis, Circassians, Chechens, Libyans, Egyptians, Algerians, Syrians and Lebanese.
The People's Republic of China fielded several divisions as well, comprised of Bangladeshis, Kashmiris, Malay Muslims, as well as China's own domestic Muslims, largely from Xinjiang and neighboring regions in that area.
The large-scale collection of forces began to prepare for large-scale operations in the Islamic Caliphate effective 2004, and the many powers agreed on tactical and "light strategic" targets to hit. Gaining the support of the moderate Shiite regime in Iran, they began the process of throwing together the last remnants of the necessary "plan of action".
The Chinese "interim election" was held on January 8, 2004. A large number of candidates took the field, even beyond the "establishment" candidates. The issues were lightly touched upon, as most candidates supported the course of action being taken against the Islamic Caliphate's warmongering. The election boiled largely down into who would win the war more effectively, and who would be a stronger leader for the time being in the "Reconstruction" period.
When the election results came around, the party that gained the largest share of votes was outside of the traditional power blocs, the typical Pan-Blue, People's Party, Revolutionary KMT, Communist Party "quad-party system" was fractured with a number of Progressives and Liberals forming their own bloc party, largely breaking off of the RKMT and PPC's power blocs.
Yu Shyi-kun, the Governor of Taiwan in the late 90s, had been a large-scale advocate for "environmental sense, economic sense, and international sense". The "Three Senses of the People" had picked up a ring similar to Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People", upon which the first republic of China had been established, and upon which even the People's Republic had found itself rooted in.
The Democratic Progressive Party took command of the office of Chairman effective February 1, 2004, and with it, China set a course for the end of a dangerous, and bloody war. And on February 2, the gates of hell opened.
After extensive conversations with President Bush in the United States, Chairman Wan announced that elections would be held in early 2004, and the winner would serve the remaining four years of his term. This was accepted by the Congress of the People's Republic in a small formal vote, and Wan Li settled in to fulfill his duties as Chairman.
Some of the first policies undertaken by the Chinese government was to push hard on Islamic imams proliferating what they considered to be "seditious radical ideologies", and completely banned immigration from Islamic states into China barring "certain persons applying for refugee status." -- this policy was criticized in some neutral states, but not many openly objected due to large scale of fear and terror that had been rife across the globe.
In the time between April 2002, and the start of Operation Hammer of Dawn in September 2003, the geopolitical world stage changed quite rapidly. the People's Liberation Army, and the Chinese special services stepped up their intelligence campaigns in Africa, leading to the overthrow of the right-wing populist regime in Zaire in June, and the installation of a pro-Chinese "soft socialist" government, similar to the rest of Eastern Africa.
Emphasizing the growing spectre of radical terrorist elements, a wave of Islamism spread through out the Middle East. where as in states such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, no such efforts materialized, Sudan was one of the first nations to feel the heat, along with Yemen, Oman and the IC's neighbors in the Arab peninsula.
From July - October 2002, the government of Sudan collapsed in favor of an Islamist regime. To protect the Christians of the region, China stepped in and occupied Southern Sudan, formally bolstering the rebels they had backed -- the declaration of the Sudanese People's Republic had followed, showing full independence for the South Sudanese nation.
In the later months of 2002, the Islamist uprisings had swept through the Arab peninsula, engulfing Yemen and the smaller states under IC control; save for Oman, whose Ibadi militant government had joined the IC's alliance and had maintained their independence -- if only nominally.
Outside of Sudan and the Arabian Peninsula, the wave of IC sentiment caused the toppling of governments in Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal; all of whom declared themselves in "fraternity with the House of Islam in it's struggle against Chinese, American and Soviet imperialism," and vowed more attacks in the coming months.
While the Americans continued to plan their method of operations against the IC, the Chinese had made no such long-term plans, and had simply began to pummel the Islamic Caliphate and her allies with aerial attacks. Between Christmas 2002 and Easter 2003, China had dropped thousands of bombs over the Islamic Alliance's territory, and had killed hundreds of militants.
The Soviet Union's commitment to the conflict escalated after the IC detonated a car-bomb outside the Soviet embassy in Damascus and attacked a nightclub there as well. The secular dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad maintained a harsh response against the terrorists, and a number of Soviet agents joined in and, with American permission, began to stage bombing raids into Arabia from American allies Jordan and Iraq.
The unbottling of the nuclear genie showed itself once again in September 2003. The United States government announced it was ready for a "full measure of response" against the forces of Islamic terrorism. President Bush stated that, "the radicals of this faith have killed thousands of people world-wide through nuclear and biological terrorism. We cannot allow this to stand, and so we must strike in response."
The nuclear genie had been uncapped in 1999 after India and Pakistan had turned upon each other and turned each other to nuclear ash. The genie would return, humans admitted, because well, once we had a taste of the evils, how could we ever deny such things again?
The United States, during the early Cold War, out of general concern over the future of utilizing nuclear weapons, instituted a policy of "mutually assured destruction". However, after the 1999 Kargil War, the three major superpowers had coordinated a new nuclear doctrine -- retalliation, at least in a tactical sense, would be the order of the day for those launching nuclear attacks. However, terrorism hadn't been entirely covered, and in the year since the May attacks, the three superpowers leaders had debated over the proper proportion of response. Nobody wanted to turn Mecca or Medina into a total parking lot, that would've simply just turned into a whole mess of problems elsewhere.
In September 2003, the Islamic Caliphate cut a large swath through the heart of Jordan, and attacked Israel, the situation escalated significantly. The Islamic Caliphate, using aeroplanes seized from the runways of Jordan, began to pummel Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv, indiscriminately bombing whatever they could reach. This threw off the time-table set up by the three allies.
The three superpowers were further troubled when the Islamic Caliphate pushed heavily into Israel, threatening Jerusalem. Israel's government warned to the three powers that the Islamic Caliphate's invasion wouldn't be tolerated in the slightest, and that disasterous repercussions would follow. This warning went a little further than the three superpowers, coherently forming a general "warning" to the Islamic World -- if the IC didn't cease their invasion, bad things would follow.
The first use of nuclear weapons in the Islamic War was a tactical Israeli detonation in the West Bank, destroying a main highway intersection that lead into Jerusalem. This attack was undertaken during a number of Islamic Caliphate convoys moving into the area. At least 800 jihadis were killed in the explosion, and it marked the total uncapping of the nuclear genie once more.
Israel once again reiterated their willingness to use nuclear weapons on a greater scale, should the forces of the Islamic Caliphate insist on their war. While Israel refused to utilize tactical or strategic nuclear weapons against the Jordanian population or state (they //were// their allies, mind you), they had no qualms about targeting any city in Arabia, and they made that clear.
In the following days, the Israelis managed to push the Islamic Caliphate back several miles from Jerusalem, and a summit of a few neighboring nations was called together. Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Kuwait (which was a government-in-exile) met in Tel-Aviv to discuss the affairs. The Arab/Islamic nations expressed their concerns about Israel's threat to utilize nuclear weapons, and sought guarantees that Mecca and Medina would not be targeted.
Similarly, Israel expressed concern that none of the states that had called the meeting had deployed troops to help Israel out (save for Iraq and Kuwait, whom were involved in their own warfare against the IC.) -- the Israeli government, largely governed by liberals and leftists, made clear that they wanted peace and cooperation with the Palestinians and the Arab world. The last time Israel and the Arab world had gone to war, 1948, the West Bank and Gaza had been under Arab control, and Israel had largely respected that.
The meeting soon moved from a simple summit of concerns into a serious debate on the matters of the future of the Middle East -- if the Islamic Caliphate was blown into nuclear ash by the superpowers and Israel, how would reconstruction afterwards look -- a number of Egyptian, Syrian and Israeli representatives suggested seriously the establishment of a framework to establish a confederation of united states in the Middle East, to join together what time has largely driven apart.
The Israeli prime minister, Avraham Burg, was one such proponent of the idea. The Democratic Front and their coalition largely consisted of adherents to the doctrines of the prevalent communist ideologies in the People's Republic of China and Soviet Union, along with left-leaning liberals and "peaceniks", who sought a proper solution to the issues raised with the 1948 war.
From September 2003 to December 2003, the "Levantine Summit" frequently met in Tel-Aviv, or in other times, Cairo, Damascus, or other cities. The first settlement reached by the nations, was the formation of a "common cause alliance" between the signatory nations, aimed on defeating the Islamic Caliphate and "purging radicalism from the world". Egypt, Syria and Lebanon soon began to freely pool soldiers of Islamic faith to be used by the powers aligned against the Islamic Caliphate -- they knew that Mecca and Medina would have to be taken by force of arms, and they didn't want it turned into nuclear glass.
As a result of this war, in the Middle Eastern theatre, either for training or preparations for Operation Olympic, numerous countries began to form Islamic-only regiments. The United States, at the suggestion of many organizations, formed many divisions, including the Muhammad Ali Division, comprised of American adherents to Sunni or Shiite Islam, Nation of Islam, as well as expeditionaries from American allies such as Morocco, Turkey, Iran, and Nigeria (plus a few soldiers from the pools made available by the framework).
The Soviet Union fielded several divisions, largely comprised of Tatar Muslims, Turkic Muslims, Kazakhs, Dagestanis, Circassians, Chechens, Libyans, Egyptians, Algerians, Syrians and Lebanese.
The People's Republic of China fielded several divisions as well, comprised of Bangladeshis, Kashmiris, Malay Muslims, as well as China's own domestic Muslims, largely from Xinjiang and neighboring regions in that area.
The large-scale collection of forces began to prepare for large-scale operations in the Islamic Caliphate effective 2004, and the many powers agreed on tactical and "light strategic" targets to hit. Gaining the support of the moderate Shiite regime in Iran, they began the process of throwing together the last remnants of the necessary "plan of action".
The Chinese "interim election" was held on January 8, 2004. A large number of candidates took the field, even beyond the "establishment" candidates. The issues were lightly touched upon, as most candidates supported the course of action being taken against the Islamic Caliphate's warmongering. The election boiled largely down into who would win the war more effectively, and who would be a stronger leader for the time being in the "Reconstruction" period.
When the election results came around, the party that gained the largest share of votes was outside of the traditional power blocs, the typical Pan-Blue, People's Party, Revolutionary KMT, Communist Party "quad-party system" was fractured with a number of Progressives and Liberals forming their own bloc party, largely breaking off of the RKMT and PPC's power blocs.
Yu Shyi-kun, the Governor of Taiwan in the late 90s, had been a large-scale advocate for "environmental sense, economic sense, and international sense". The "Three Senses of the People" had picked up a ring similar to Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People", upon which the first republic of China had been established, and upon which even the People's Republic had found itself rooted in.
The Democratic Progressive Party took command of the office of Chairman effective February 1, 2004, and with it, China set a course for the end of a dangerous, and bloody war. And on February 2, the gates of hell opened.