This could also mean the Arroyo adminsitration would hasten AFP modernization. The F-5A/B fleets would be reactivated soonest. DND could request additonal spare parts from the U.S., if not even outright look into the F-16 or F/A-18 Hornet. For the Hornet, the Philippine Air Force almost received them had it not been for the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis. Even with the world recession caused by the Rage Virus, defense spending would skyrocket. Among these too would be NBC/CRBN assets.
Not all U.S. forces would be withdrawn to the mainland. As of 2002, the U.S. is still propping up a transitional government in Afghanistan and doing so might just give the Taliban the retaking they need (we saw how it played in OTL 2021). North Korea would see that as a sign of weakness and attempt to invade the South. What is likely is U.S. overseas deployments in Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific, and South America would remain in place as part of Washington's commitments with their allies.
Map of the U.S. military deployments as of 2002.
Consider that the POD is just 7 months after 9/11. We all know 9/11 changed America politically and culturally. On the political side, we got the Patriot Act and DHS. On the cultural side, people of brown color got hate attacks because racists could not tell the difference of Middle Easterners from South Asians. There was also paranoia over airplanes. For example, two months after 9/11, a plane crash in Queens caused the evacuation of skyscrapers in Manhattan.
Culturally, 9/11 also changed the pop-culture we know it. The WTC scene involving a helicopter being stuck on a web in
Spiderman (2002) was removed. Movies about terrorism and hijackings were either released later or completely cancelled. America got more paranoid with potential terrorist infiltrators.
Being just less than a year after 9/11, you are correct that gun sales, bunker sales, and survivalist culture would definitley prop-up. We would then also see hate attacks on people of brown color thinking that they are responsible for the Rage outbreak, thinking the Britain suffered a bioterrorist attack. There would be more liberal use of guns and concealed carry, possibly even in Blue States like California, New York, and Illinois. People would start moving out of the major cities seeing what happened to Cambridge, Manchester, London, and all major cities in Great Britain.
On the pop-culture scene, zombie movies would be severely delayed. The first live-action
Resident Evil already hit the cinemas at this period but I wouldn't see their sequels ever be produced. Same for the
Dawn of the Dead remake,
Dead Rising, and
Left 4 Dead. Zombie pop-culture would be seen as insensitive or "aged poorly". Britain would lose most of her cultural identity. We don't get a carbon copy of HALO. One Direction, Adele, The Wanted, and Ellie Goldberg do not become famous as they right now.
Well global Military spending will skyrocket back to the "glory days" of the Cold War certainly.
Not even a collapse of the Global economy will stop the arms spending.
The US will probably not pull out of Afghanistan until after 2004 or later, President Bush will be unable to launch an invasion into Iraq like he did in OTL unless there is mass hysteria in the media about terrorism and Saddam having samples of the Rage Virus, but any invasion will be extremely limited and there is unlikely to be any true occupation or "Nation building" done as the US.
North Korea will see a sign of weakness in the West but will not suddenly start an invasion of South Korea.
Relations between the North and South were actually improving in the early 2000s with the ongoing
Sunshine Policy, despite the interference from the hardliner stance of the Bush Administration disrupting North-South relations with Bush calling the North as part of the "Axis of evil".
However if the US had suffered a devastating outbreak of the Rage Virus or South Korea itself had the Rage Virus then its beyond certain that Kim no.2 would've taken his chances and sent the Army across the DMZ and into the South.
The US will definitely maintain its overseas bases, and heck even expand them, but the European bases in Germany and the UK will be abandoned obviously
The aftermath of 9/11 will only add fuel into the fire of paranoria and racism both of which will be getting blasted into the stratosphere thanks to the fear of terrorism and Rage Virus with the continued war against both of them with the boogeyman Osama Bin Laden still at large.
Air travel will be hurt significantly, not by the risk of the Planes getting infected by Rage but rather instead by the financial disaster of the Rage Virus, this is basically a double whammy after only a few months since the devastating impact of 9/11 (sorry for the pun it wasn't intentional).
This is further worsened by the fact that the majority of flights across the North Atlantic are mostly cancelled for the foreseeable future, travelling will also be highly restricted as the risk of the Rage Virus being smuggled into America will be far too great until the Rage Vaccine is made and distributed across the planet.
Airlines that are also highly reliant or just use Airbus Aircraft only will be in serious trouble as Airbus will no more longer be a much of a functional company after being decapitated from the events of the 2002 POD.
Therefore Boeing is going to enjoy most of the early 21st Century with unquestionable monopoly on the Commercial Aviation market with only China and Russia and a resurrected Airbus being able to truly challenge Boeing's monopoly in the 2030s.
The pop-culture will definitely be derailed by the 2002 POD, with whatever "zombie-type" pop-culture being replaced by documentaries and films of the stories of the survivors who did or didn't make it against the Rage and how the rest of the world reacted to it.
It would be seen as extremely politically incorrect to still make videos and games about the Zombie genre until about 28 years later when the younger generations has half forgotten about the horrors and disasters of the early 2000s decade.
A general exudes from the cities of the US will definitely happen in this TL with people buying up houses in more safer and secluded locations, with gated communities that are proven to be "Rage proof" likely to become extremely popular.
The demand for Helicopters will definitely skyrocket as everyone will want a quick and dirty getaway from the epicentre of a outbreak and the
normal everyday gridlock traffic jams. The same will happen with General aviation aircraft, although only with people living near airports and airfields.
Bunkers of all shapes and sizes will be extremely popular again after all the hysteria and panicking that did happen in the Y2K Scare.
The people who bought the bunkers for the 2000 scare (some people would still even be in those emergency bunkers since 2000) will feel vindicated and proven when the Rage Virus scare begins.
Those bunker people will only be proven wrong once again when the Rage Virus thankfully fails to reach the US States, the same cannot be said for the people of Europe...
Oh speaking of Europe how about we crank up the already bad mass hysteria and panic of the Rage Virus after the fall of the UK to well over 10 when the events of 28 weeks later starts and with most of Europe and the global economy with it collapsing to the Rage Virus.