Chapter 731: ‘Desert Storm’ Operation Plan

"Has the battle plan been finalized now?" Li Fuguo looked at Prince Sultan.

Li Fuguo knew that the two sides had argued fiercely about the "Desert Storm" battle plan, and no consensus had been reached until now.

The Americans had a big appetite, and they seemed to want to swallow up Iraq's 540,000 troops in Kuwait.

Prince Sultan nodded and said, "Yes, the "Desert Storm" battle plan has been finalized. Our Arab coalition forces will launch an attack from the south and attack north along the coast. The United States and its allies will launch an attack from the west and northwest, and the northwest will cut off the Iraqi army's connection with Kuwait and Iraq, and encircle the Iraqi army's 540,000 troops in Kuwait."

With Prince Sultan's introduction, Li Fuguo had already understood the actual content of the "Desert Storm" battle plan.

Li Fuguo secretly marveled at the coalition's wealth.

It took 7 days to launch a large-scale air strike on Iraq through missiles and aircraft, thereby destroying Iraq's radar positions, air defense positions, communication stations and other important military targets. Iraq's tanks and armored vehicles were also destroyed by fighter jets and helicopters launching missiles and rockets.

The Americans are still ruthless.

According to Li Fuguo, in order to win over Iraq's neighboring countries, the United States is very active and has paid a lot of price.

In order to win Egypt's support, then US Secretary of Defense Richard Bruce Cheney personally flew to Cairo and expressed his willingness to cancel Egypt's $7 billion military debt to the United States.

In winning Turkey's support, the United States tried to persuade Turkey to cut off Iraq's oil pipeline passing through it, but this also caused economic losses to Turkey. Bush personally called Turkish President Özal and agreed to waive part of Turkey's foreign debt and promised to give it corresponding economic compensation.

This time, the battle plan was drawn up by the United States long ago, and for this purpose, the United States mobilized a large number of expensive high-precision weapons and ammunition in the Gulf region.

The military expenditure here is quite astonishing.

The US military spent $30 billion just to mobilize the army. Although the cost of mobilizing troops of other US allies was not so much, it was still not small.

Now, the US military is planning to create a new method of warfare, focusing on air strikes, and ground forces to clean up the battlefield.

This method of fighting is really too rich.

Let's look at Iraq. The current combat plan is mainly defensive, and it is prepared to set up solid defensive positions to inflict heavy casualties on the allies.

From the "Desert Storm" combat plan, Li Fuguo can see that this plan has learned the lessons of the Vietnam War. The US military is ready to invest decisive forces at one time, rather than a war of attrition like the gradual increase of troops in the Vietnam War. Once the war begins, the allies will simultaneously launch a large-scale offensive, rather than a piecemeal attack.

According to the plan, the entire campaign is expected to take 32 days and is divided into four stages.

The first stage is strategic bombing, with 6 days as the benchmark, D+0 to D+6, which means at least 6 days of bombing and a maximum of 12 days of bombing. The strategic bombing targets include leadership organs, key production institutions, infrastructure and field troops, 12 categories of more than 300 targets.

The second stage is to seize the air superiority in the Kuwait theater, which takes 1 to 6 days.

The third stage is battlefield preparation, which takes 10 to 15 days for the Republican Guard and 14 to 20 days for the Kuwaiti Iraqi Army. Finally, the ground offensive is carried out according to the order of the superior leaders, provided that the overall combat effectiveness of the Kuwaiti Iraqi Army is reduced by 50%.

The fourth stage is the ground offensive operation, which is expected to take 17 to 32 days.

At the same time, the Saudi Royal Palace.

King Fahd is meeting with Egyptian President Mubarak.

"Mubarak, I hope you can convince Saddam to agree to withdraw his troops. If you continue, the multinational forces will launch an attack on Iraq, invade Iraqi territory, and overthrow his regime." King Fahd said earnestly, "The Arab world should unite, not bleed!"

King Fahd saw the Americans' calculations clearly.

Why did the Americans instigate Saddam to attack Kuwait this time? Wasn't it for a rare opportunity to enter and control the Middle East?

Saddam, that bastard, actually gave this opportunity to the Americans.

Otherwise, according to the previous trend, it would probably take a few years for the Americans to withdraw their military bases in the Middle East and have no more troops stationed in the Middle East.

"If Saddam wanted to withdraw his troops, he would have withdrawn long ago. He is now clearly going to fight the coalition led by the United States. He is not willing to return the territory of Kuwait at all." Mubarak said with a wry smile.

Although Egypt and Iraq are far apart, Mubarak and Saddam have a very friendly relationship.

Egypt and Iraq also have a very friendly relationship.

This time, Egypt sent troops and did not make a fuss about the Suez Canal to facilitate the transfer of troops and transportation of supplies by Europe and the United States. It was not because of how good the relationship between Egypt and Europe and the United States was, but because the United States gave too much.

In addition to the US$7 billion in foreign debt forgiven by the United States, plus other benefits, it is conservatively estimated that the United States and its allies have spent tens of billions of dollars on Egypt.

Not to mention that the troops sent by Egypt joined the Arab coalition, and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other oil-producing countries paid to arm these troops, and those weapons and equipment all belonged to Egypt.

It can be said that Egypt won this time.

"Mubarak, we are all Arab brother countries. We should do our best to avoid war. You are Saddam's good friend and brother. You are the most suitable!" King Fahd said in a deep voice.

King Fahd really does not want the war to expand. The multinational forces stationed in Saudi Arabia are also going to launch attacks on Kuwait and Iraq from Saudi Arabia. Once the war starts, no matter what the outcome is, Saudi Arabia will definitely face Iraq's retaliation.

Besides, King Fahd does not want the United States' ambitions to succeed.

Mubarak frowned.

As the leader of a major country in the Arab world, he naturally knows King Fahd's concerns. He also does not want the Arab world to fight too hard. No matter how big the internal contradictions are, the use of war will ultimately harm the interests of the Arab world.

Iraq represents the most powerful military force in the Arab world, which is a deterrent to Israel and European and American countries.

Once Iraq's powerful military force is severely damaged, it is the power of the Arab world that will be lost.

Without the deterrence of Iraq, Israel may be ready to move again.

In the fifth Middle East war, Iraq put in a lot of effort, money and manpower, and mobilized a large army to deter the enemy.

Mubarak also knew very well that the current situation was ultimately caused by the United States's efforts to expand its interests in the Middle East.

Now that the Americans are here, it is not easy to get them to leave.

Now unless Iraq withdraws its troops, the United States will let the war break out anyway.

The reason why it did not take action immediately was, on the one hand, that weapons and supplies were not fully in place, and on the other hand, the final withdrawal time of Resolution 678.

This time the United States stood on the moral high ground. If it took action before the final withdrawal time, it would violate Resolution 678, greatly reducing its legitimacy.