Chapter 699: Calculation and Ambition

On December 20, 1989, the military launched an invasion of Panama in order to dispel Congress's cuts in the defense budget.

In addition to the control of the Panama Canal, a very important reason was to prevent the defense budget from being cut.

Everyone knows that only when facing war and American interests are threatened will Congress approve more military spending.

Unfortunately, the Panamanian National Defense Force was too weak and the war didn't last for a few days.

Even at the beginning, Noriega commanded the Panamanian army to resist the US military tenaciously, but from the outbreak of the war, Panama lost its organized resistance in just eight hours.

15 hours after the war started, the US military had controlled most of the Panamanian military camps.

Finally, until the evening of January 3, 1990, Noriega surrendered to the US military and the war ended.

The entire war took only 15 days, but the cost was as high as billions of dollars, and the US military sent 27,000 combat troops.

As a result, the army was very confident, especially the new recruits, who were crying and shouting, but they were ridiculed by the Soviet camp internationally.

The old men in Congress could not stand it. Not only did it not work, but they also had their military spending cut.

Now, they are planning a conspiracy against Iraq.

Iraq is undoubtedly a very suitable opponent. Iraq is listed as the third largest military power in the world, and Saddam is ambitious. He has criticized the United States many times and opposed the United States. At the same time, it also affects the interests of the United States in the Gulf region.

This is a stumbling block!

As long as it goes smoothly, it can not only restore the morale and confidence of the army, but also bring Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries under control, and at the most critical time, half of the military expenditure can be paid by Arab countries.

In addition to NATO allies, as well as Japan and South Korea, the United States does not need to pay much military expenditure.

And this does not affect the interests of the military-industrial complex, and these defense suppliers can make a lot of money.

It is for this reason that the United States has repeatedly told Saddam that the United States does not care about these things.

This is to make Iraq feel that it has no worries and has the support of the United States, so that it dares to go to war.

As long as Iraq goes to war, whether it is against Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, can the United States sit idly by?

Impossible!

The US military has enough reasons to organize a coalition to attack Iraq.

And the Soviet Union is unlikely to completely break up with the United States because of this.

After all, the Soviet Union is a country that wants to face up.

This is in line with the national interests of the United States!

As for the good relationship between Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which is as close as brothers, this situation is definitely not what the United States wants to see.

If this is the case, how can the United States exert influence on the Arab world?

At this time in the Middle East, because Iraq proposed a territorial dispute with Kuwait, it believed that Kuwait should return to Iraq and become a province, so that the glory of the ancient Babylonian Empire could be restored and a Babylonian Empire could be rebuilt. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait communicated and negotiated, but at the beginning, they were strongly opposed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The differences between the two sides are very large.

Iraq is already very powerful, with the most powerful army in the Arab world, the largest number of troops, the best equipment, and the strongest combat effectiveness.

After fighting with the Persians for ten years, Iraq still had the upper hand on the battlefield between Iran and Iraq, instead of being pushed flat by the Persians.

For military powers, they may look down on the performance of both sides in the Iran-Iraq War, but for other countries, Persia is not a cat or dog, but a lion in the Middle East!

In the past, Persia was the most powerful country in the entire Middle East, with the strongest army, navy and air force in the Middle East.

Therefore, other countries are very afraid of Iraq.

Once Iraq has Kuwait, there will be no dispute about the boss of the Arab world, and countries such as Saudi Arabia will have to worry about whether Iraq will attack them and annex them.

And this situation made Saddam furious and angry.

He told his men angrily: "War, only war can achieve territorial integrity! Only force can realize our great ideals!"

In his opinion, Kuwait is already part of Iraq, and negotiations are in order to avoid war, and Iraq has not completed its war preparations.

It would be best to be able to take Kuwait without war.

But now it has been shown that this path through negotiations is impossible.

Then, Saddam ordered an armored division to go to the border with Kuwait.

In order to intimidate Kuwait, they went to the Kuwaiti border without any concealment.

Kuwait got the news immediately and was extremely nervous.

Faced with such a crisis, King Emir Jaber immediately convened an emergency national defense meeting.

Kuwait's senior military officials were helpless and under great pressure. They told the king directly at the meeting: "Your Majesty, our military strength is simply not comparable to Iraq. Iraq has 1.2 million regular troops and has fought a war with Persia for ten years. It can be said that it has experienced many battles. All our armed forces combined are only a little more than 20,000. Even if we mobilize, it will take time. We can't resist Iraq even if all our people are soldiers."

Kuwait has a land area of ​​only 17,800 square kilometers and a population of less than two million.

The Iraqi regular army has 1.2 million people. The army is armed to the teeth, with thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, not to mention a huge number of artillery, missiles, and a large number of fighter planes.

Not to mention, the Iraqi army has been baptized by war, but the Kuwaiti army has never experienced war.

With high welfare all year round, you can live a good life even if you don't work, but few people in Kuwait are willing to serve as soldiers.

And this is because Kuwait has the best military treatment in the world!

As for training, the Kuwaiti military has little training.

An army with little training and little combat experience is actually no better than ordinary people.

There is such a huge difference in quantity and quality, so there is no way to fight.

Emil Bill looked at Prince Fahd and knew the pressure he was under. He said: "Prince, the Iraqis are scaring us. If they really want to go to war, they will refuse to negotiate and directly lead the troops to invade. We really have no ability to resist." , but we have Saudi Arabia behind us. Now we must make a strong response and tell the Iraqis that Kuwait is not afraid of war!”

Prince Fahd smiled bitterly.

Even if they mobilize all their armed forces to the border, they will not have any deterrent effect on Iraq. Instead, they will make the situation more tense.

As for Saudi Arabia, the Saudi army is not small now, but the Saudi army has never been strong!

The treatment of the Saudi military is no worse than that of Kuwait, and the training is not much better than that of Kuwait.

The only thing that stands out is the Saudi Air Force and its navy, which is considered the most powerful in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.

But if a fight breaks out, to be honest, Prince Fahd is not optimistic about Saudi Arabia.