#1397 - Swelled

The 2012 London Olympics stirred up quite a few things.

Even before the Games started, London was bustling with activity, leaving the world dumbfounded. People couldn't understand how a developed capitalist country like Britain could have so many mishaps while hosting the Olympics.

This time, Britain's approach to hosting the Olympics was extremely calculated.

Affected by the global economic crisis and the European debt crisis, Britain's domestic economy was sluggish. No money to host the Olympics?

No problem!

Can't build brand new venues? Then renovate!

At the London Olympics, out of the 34 competition venues, only 6 were newly built permanent structures, with the rest being temporary or renovated venues.

The Horse Guards Parade in London is a famous attraction where the solemn Changing of the Guard ceremony takes place every morning, and the Queen's Birthday Parade is held every year. But in the summer of this year, after laying down sand and setting up temporary seating, it became the venue for beach volleyball at the London Olympics.

Similarly, the basketball arena in the Olympic Park was arguably the largest 'temporary structure' in Olympic history. Constructed with 1,000 tons of steel frame, the arena resembled a mattress. Such a magnificent stadium would only be a 'flash in the pan' during the Olympics.

According to the British, Londoners didn't need a basketball arena because London already had enough. So, after the Games, it would be dismantled, and the materials would be used for other construction projects.

In terms of security, even before the Olympics started, Britain's security arrangements were causing international concern.

Starting July 12, the British military began installing surface-to-air missiles around London Olympic venues to address potential security threats. On July 13, the Royal Navy warship 'Ocean' sailed to the Greenwich reach of the River Thames in London to address potential security threats during the London Olympics.

The British government made a show of doing everything possible to finalize security preparations for the Olympics, but problems continued to surface.

G4S, the private security company hired by the London Organizing Committee, was exposed for serious flaws in security personnel recruitment and training.

According to the original plan, 13,700 security personnel were to be recruited, but with the Olympics about to begin, only 4,000 had been hired, less than a third of the required number. This forced the British Ministry of Defence to add another 3,500 troops to the London Olympics security effort.

In addition, G4S hired 3,300 college students and hundreds of foreigners as security inspectors. Due to the lack of professional systematic training, there was widespread concern about their ability to handle security work.

In this situation, the London Olympics in Britain proceeded as scheduled, with results that were unbearable to witness.

Security problems really did occur, with injuries and deaths among spectators and athletes, causing widespread panic.

Also, during the Games, there were frequent instances of biased refereeing, which was simply appalling.

The eruption of various problems made this Olympics unbearable to watch.

Yet, despite all this, the British continued to promote and boast that this Olympics was the best in history.

After the athletes returned home, they began to receive various awards.

The athletes from the Panshan Sports Team were no exception.

A significant number of athletes in the national team came from the Panshan Sports Team.

Some of them were particularly outstanding.

Liu Jingming led the national team in a final showdown with the United States, and although they lost to the American Dream Team, they displayed spirit and resilience, making their defeat honorable.

Liu Qingan and Liu Manhua won the men's singles and mixed doubles tennis titles, respectively. The three gold medals were of high value, propelling them to the top of the men's and women's world rankings in tennis.

'Tibetan Mastiff' Zhang Jike once again defeated teammate Wang Hao at the London Games, achieving consecutive Olympic men's singles titles in table tennis, creating history in the men's table tennis event, and achieving a double Grand Slam.

It was also during the London Olympic cycle that 'Tibetan Mastiff' Zhang Jike popularized table tennis, ensuring that tickets for table tennis matches were never a concern. In terms of popularity and value rankings, Zhang Jike was among the top five sports stars.

Many girls who were originally not interested in table tennis began to pay attention to it because of Zhang Jike.

However, the Chinese sports delegation failed to rank first in the gold medal table like the Beijing Olympics, losing to the Americans and ranking second.

In China, countless people compared the London Olympics with their own Beijing Olympics, and the results always led to a shake of the head, which made the Chinese even more proud.

Facts proved that the Beijing Olympics was indeed a unique Olympics that the Chinese people brought to the world, surpassing all previous Games, and the Olympics held by other countries later would probably not be able to match it.

In addition to honoring these athletes, Liu Tao couldn't help but pay attention to the US presidential election.

At this point, the two parties' candidates for the US presidential election were finally determined and announced.

Barack, with the full support of the black community, defeated his intra-party competitors by a narrow margin and became the Democratic presidential candidate.

But even so, few people were optimistic that Barack would be able to win re-election.

Because the unemployment rate in the United States was still high, and in American history, no one had ever been successfully re-elected with such a high unemployment rate.

The sluggish economy was also an undeniable fact for the United States.

However, the United States' clean and swift 'surgical' bombing of Iran, destroying Iran's ability to develop nuclear energy, also earned Barack some points.

In the current situation, the US presidential election was unpredictable, and Liu Tao was not sure whether Barack would be able to defeat his opponent and win re-election as he did in the original timeline.

After all, the butterfly effect generated now was extraordinary.

Today, the United States had been almost driven out of the Middle East, losing all its interests in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its presence in the Middle East was limited to 30,000 American troops on the Israeli-Palestinian border. These 30,000 troops were actually Barack's way of courting Jewish capital, acting as a protective umbrella for Israel.

However, the deployment of 30,000 American troops on the Israeli-Palestinian border, separating Israel and the Arab world, made Palestine, Syria, and others very dissatisfied, and perhaps one day, military conflict between the two sides would erupt again.

The United States' deployment of 30,000 American troops on the Israeli-Palestinian border only suppressed the Israeli-Palestinian issue, rather than solving it. The Israeli-Palestinian issue still existed, and the problem had not been resolved.

Currently, the United States was investing heavily in North Africa.

In Libya, it was engaged in a proxy war with Russia, or rather, not just with Russia, but with Russia + Europe, or rather, France and Germany.

The war in Libya had not stopped to this day.

Libyan freedom fighters, with the help of the United States, established a democratic freedom army with the goal of overthrowing Gaddafi's dictatorship. This democratic freedom army also received support from democratic freedom fighters in Algeria and other countries.

Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco had basically fallen under the control of the American military.

Moreover, the 'Arab Spring' had also affected Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and even Sudan, where unrest had emerged.

Egypt was unstable in the 'Arab Spring' and could change color at any time.

In Yemen, the 'Arab Spring' led to the resurgence of war.

Saudi Arabia already wanted to resolve the Yemen issue with military force.

Yemen was regarded as Saudi Arabia's backyard, and Saudi Arabia could not accept its backyard catching fire.

In recent years, with the improvement of its military strength, the army, navy, and air force were equipped with advanced equipment, and a lot of money was spent on training the army, which gave Saudi Arabia a lot of confidence.

Moreover, the Arab coalition forces could be mobilized at any time.

Saudi Arabia also wanted to take this opportunity to show its muscles and let the world see who was in charge in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia and other countries were very dissatisfied with the actions of the United States.

The United States had changed from a net oil importer to a net exporter. In fact, the United States had formed a competitive relationship with Middle Eastern oil-producing countries in terms of oil and natural gas.

The United States' desire to gain control over energy inevitably harmed the interests of Saudi Arabia and other countries.

The global energy market was only so big, and competition was already fierce. Originally, there was OPEC to coordinate all parties, but the United States, which was not an OPEC member, had emerged as a variable.

If the United States took a bigger piece of the cake, other countries would have to take a smaller piece.

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The reason why Saudi Arabia and other countries provided money and weapons to support Libya was because there were huge conflicts of interest between them and the United States.

Liu Tao received the information and couldn't help but smile wryly.

He didn't know whether Saudi Arabia was confident or whether it should be said that Saudi Arabia was inflated.

The Saudi army had not fought a war for a long time, and even the Arab coalition forces were only fighting sporadically, without any real baptism of war.

Frankly speaking, it was hard to say how much of the advantages of weapons and equipment the Saudi army and the Arab coalition forces could exert.

The same weapons and equipment could produce different combat effectiveness in different countries.

This had been demonstrated in the wars of the past few decades.

For example, in South Asia, Bharat could turn Su-27 and F-16 fighters into scrap. On the battlefield, Bharat Air Force pilots flying Su-27 and F-16 fighters were unable to defeat J-7 and J-8 fighters, and were shot down by J-7 and J-8 fighters, and not just one or two.

In Libya, mercenaries from the United States and Russia flying planes to fight were very exciting, fully demonstrating the combat effectiveness of their respective aircraft.

The Russian mercenaries proved with their performance that the Su-27's avionics system was indeed not as good as the F-15, but it did not mean that the Su-27's combat effectiveness was not as good as the F-15!

Even in complex battlefield environments, the Su-27 was sometimes more advantageous than the F-15.

Liu Tao had no confidence in how much of the combat effectiveness of weapons and equipment the Saudi and other armies could exert.

However, the weapons and equipment of the rebel armed forces in Yemen were far inferior to those of Saudi Arabia.

To this end, Liu Tao recalled several people who had been in the Middle East for many years to personally understand the situation.

After all, they were responsible for military training and other businesses, and they knew the situation best.

"Leader, don't mention it, it's a long story. Damn it, after so long of training, they can't even march in step properly. If the amount of training is slightly larger, they complain endlessly, but their amount of training is less than half of our recruits!" The 'Chen Ming' in charge of military training turned dark and couldn't help but complain: "If I were to lead a heavy combined arms brigade, I would have a great chance of defeating their three armored divisions."

"I know about the air force, their training... Alas! The most advanced aircraft are the same to them!" 'Li Zhenhua', who was in charge of air force training, sighed repeatedly, completely unable to watch.

Li Zhenhua was originally the commander of an air force flying regiment, and later retired to become a mercenary and was sent to the Middle East to provide training services.

Sometimes he felt that these countries were simply wasting advanced third-generation fighters.

Liu Tao couldn't help but smile wryly. Sure enough, as he thought, the Saudi army's combat effectiveness was far less strong than the data on paper.

You know, in European and American military journals, Saudi Arabia's military strength ranks in the top ten and belongs to the Middle East power.

But now it seems that the data on paper is the data on paper, and the real combat effectiveness is greatly reduced.

However, the weapons and equipment of the Yemeni rebel armed forces are far inferior to those of Saudi Arabia.

"If Saudi Arabia sends troops to fight the Yemeni rebel armed forces, how do you think they can win?" Liu Tao asked a question.

The Middle East must maintain overall stability!

Because the major oil-producing countries in the Middle East are the world's energy center.

As the world's largest energy importer, China transports a large amount of oil and natural gas from the Middle East to China. The stability of the Middle East means the stability of energy prices, which means the stability of energy supply in the Middle East, which is very important.

Moreover, if the Middle East maintains overall stability, then it will not be so easy for the Americans to reopen the situation in the Middle East.

Furthermore, the Middle East is also an important place for China's exports, and the importance of exports to China's economy is self-evident.

"First of all, use planes to bomb the target. As far as I know, the Yemeni rebel armed forces do not have air defense weapons. Anyway, Saudi Arabia has money, and the consumption of bombs is nothing to Saudi Arabia."

"Also, use drones to attack the rebel armed forces."

"The most important thing for ground forces is defense, not active attacks..."

Under the discussion of several people, a feasible plan gradually took shape.

The general idea is to use Saudi Arabia's advantage in weapons and equipment, steadily and steadily fight to consume the rebel armed forces to death.

This is very suitable for Saudi Arabia.

As for whether Saudi Arabia is willing to adopt this combat plan, Liu Tao is not sure.

After all, Saudi Arabia is a bit inflated now, who knows if Saudi Arabia will want to learn from the US military and come to sweep away the fallen leaves in the autumn wind.

However, the advice still has to be given, and it is Saudi Arabia's own choice whether to do it or not.

As for letting Saudi Arabia replenish its troops from the Iraqi army into the coalition forces, Liu Tao doesn't think it is necessarily feasible.

It's quite unbelievable that the strongest fighting force in the Arab coalition actually comes from the Iraqi army. (End of Chapter)