Chapter 1088 Large Orders and Military Expansion

"We absolutely cannot fight in the Middle East at this time. Our energy is now focused on the battlefield in Afghanistan. We have no ability to open up the Middle East battlefield unless we expand our military!" Rumsfeld said: "We have evaluated that if we want to fight, we need to invest 800,000 troops, and then pull our allies to form a coalition of 1 million troops to win the Middle East war."

Rumsfeld, 70 years old this year, is the first person in American history to serve as Secretary of Defense twice.

After receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University in 1954, he served in the Navy Air Force for 3 years. In 1963, Rumsfeld, who had just turned 30, ran for the Federal House of Representatives and won in one fell swoop, and was re-elected for 4 terms. In 1969, Rumsfeld, who was only 37 years old, was spotted by Nixon and served as an assistant to the president and was promoted to director of the "Office of Economic Opportunity".

From 1970 to 1973, Rumsfeld served as a presidential adviser. From 1973 to 1974, he served as the US representative to NATO and began to get involved in diplomatic and defense affairs. From 1974 to 1975, he served as the White House Chief of Staff of the Ford administration. In 1975, at the age of 43, he was appointed Secretary of Defense, becoming the youngest Secretary of Defense in US history.

Only the following year, as Ford lost the election, he had to step down in disgrace. Then he turned to the business world and served as the president of Hill Pharmaceuticals and General Instruments.

Rumsfeld is a "four-term veteran" of the Republican government. He is known for his "judgment and foresight". Even when the Democratic Party was in power, he was commissioned by Congress in 1998 to serve as the chairman of the bipartisan "Committee on Assessing the Threat to the United States from Ballistic Missiles" and put forward a report on the threat of missiles to the United States, overturning the CIA's determination that the United States underestimated the threat of enemy missiles. He was called a "hawk" and a "Cold War veteran" by the media.

It was precisely because he advocated breaking the current deadlock and accelerating deployment on the issue of missile defense, which coincided with Bush's views, that he was finally able to serve as Secretary of Defense again.

Regarding the tasks after taking office, Rumsfeld said: "We should not target old threats, but new threats, such as information warfare, anti-ballistic missile systems, counter-terrorism, defending space and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

Rumsfeld defined his main tasks in the near future as persuading Congress and US allies to accept the missile defense system, promoting the deployment of the joint strike fighter, the largest fighter program in the history of the US Air Force, and purchasing 295 F-11 'Raptor' fighters. This is only the first production order, and the number of orders will be increased in the future. Through these measures, efforts will be made to build the US military in the 21st century into a new army with stronger mobility, faster response, and better ability to cope with various forms of regional conflicts.

As early as before September 11 last year, the US military purchased 295 F22 ‘Raptor’ fighter jets from Lockheed Martin at a price of $220 million each, with a total order of $64.9 billion, which was delivered by 2011; at the same time, the US military purchased 27 Seawolf-class attack nuclear submarines that were originally cancelled at a price of $2.4 billion each to replace the ‘Los Angeles’-class attack nuclear submarines to be retired, with a total order of $64.8 billion.

And the US military continued to purchase the four Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that were cancelled that year, with a purchase price of $9 billion each and a total order value of $36 billion.

Before September 11, the US military placed a total order of $497.1 billion for the purchase of weapons and equipment. Although this is not a one-time payment, but a payment in batches over the years, it is a major positive for the US military industry, which also made the military industry enterprises the best performers before September 11, and the military industry sector was the only one that stood out.

After September 11, the US military urgently issued a total of 260 billion US dollars in weapons and equipment orders, including tanks and armored vehicles, cannons, guns, bullets and shells, portable air defense missiles, portable anti-tank missiles, portable rocket launchers, anti-tank vehicles, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, bulletproof vests, night vision goggles, etc.

This also made the military-related enterprises the fastest rising after September 11.

And airlines and the like, that is a terrible drop.

Now there are more than 100,000 elite US troops in the battlefield in Afghanistan, plus the aircraft carrier fleet, the total force of the US military in the war in Afghanistan has reached 200,000.

Although the total force of the US military is over one million, the US military also has a large number of military bases. It is impossible for the military bases to leave no troops. The US military stationed in Japan and South Korea alone has reached 100,000, plus Guam and other important military bases in the Pacific, with a total of 200,000 US troops.

The US military bases in Europe have a total of 150,000 troops stationed; the total number of troops stationed in African countries is 50,000.

This is already a full 600,000 people!

The United States is the most powerful country in the world in terms of military strength, with more than 1.4 million active military personnel and 800,000 civilian personnel. Of the 1.4 million active military personnel, the total strength of the Army is 480,000. It can be said that the US military has no more Army to deploy, unless it expands its military, or transfers troops stationed in Europe, the Pacific, and Africa to the Middle East. Otherwise, the United States can only rely on the Air Force and the Navy to fight.

And those coastal countries in the Middle East are equipped with "Eagle Strike" anti-ship missiles. The threat of "Eagle Strike" anti-ship missiles to warships has caused the Americans to suffer a lot in Libya and Iraq, and they have the deepest experience in this regard. The threat of "Aegis" air defense missiles to aircraft has also caused the United States to suffer enough in this regard.

Besides, since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian war, the United States and Israel have lost so many aircraft that they have to be replenished. Although the United States and Israel have placed orders for thousands of aircraft in total, it does not mean that the aircraft can be produced immediately after the order is placed. Aircraft production takes time.

And the United States estimates that it will take three years to produce thousands of third-generation fighters!

This forced the United States and Israel to purchase a batch of second-generation aircraft and second-generation and a half aircraft for emergency use.

What also made the coalition forces in Afghanistan dissatisfied was that the loss of aircraft had affected the coalition's air support capabilities in Afghanistan.

"Expand the army, expand the army to 766,000 people, and expand the total force to 1.928 million people, so that the navy, army and air force will return to the level of 1991!" George Walker said, "The US military must maintain a strong military force to safeguard the interests of the United States and maintain its hegemony!"

To be honest, many people are very dissatisfied with the disarmament and reduction of weapons and equipment purchases in the previous eight years, and think that it is self-destruction.

Many Americans believe that the U.S. military should maintain a strong military force, so that it can have a strong deterrent force and others will be afraid of the United States.

The U.S. military is an important part of the U.S. hegemony.

Many Americans believe that many countries are not afraid of the U.S. military now because the U.S. military has significantly reduced its military and canceled orders for weapons and equipment, and its military strength has not increased but decreased, while other countries are increasing.

If the U.S. military strength reaches the level of 1991, which country dares to disrespect the United States?

Whoever disrespects the United States will be beaten, just like the United States beat Libya and Iraq back then!