The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 1125 Disaster to Chiyu
The most unlucky ones are Cyprus and Türkiye.

It was early in the morning and it was still dark.

Faced with missile and air force bombing from Iraq, air defense sirens sounded throughout Cyprus.

The British and American air force bases in Cyprus were destroyed, and Cyprus was also affected, causing more than 3000 casualties and a large number of buildings were destroyed.

The port of Cyprus was bombed and destroyed, causing heavy losses.

Turkey also suffered a large number of missile attacks and air force bombings from Iraq, and air defense sirens sounded throughout Turkey. This was the first time Turkey had encountered this since World War II.

It would be fine if only the joint forces air force was attacked and bombed, but the problem is that Iraq's missiles are not very accurate, and some of them fell on Turkish cities, causing huge casualties to Turkey.

The direct casualties were only a few thousand, but the panic caused by the incident saw some people jumping off buildings to escape, others being squeezed and pushed down causing trampling, and the total casualties were estimated to be over ten thousand.

The Cyprus and Turkish representatives to the United Nations were furious and accused Iraq at the meeting of unprovoked attacks on third countries, causing civilian casualties.

Iraq's representative to the United Nations hit back, saying that by providing a military base, they were participating in the war.

Then at the meeting, the Iraqi representative took a tough stance, saying that the Iraqi people would resist to the end and would not surrender because of the enemy's strong military force. Advanced weapons could destroy the Iraqis, but they could not destroy the Iraqis' hearts and will.

The meeting turned into a quarrel between the two sides.

The Iraqi representative was not alone, as Arab countries and a large number of third world countries expressed their support for Iraq.

The United States unilaterally launched a military strike against Iraq, bypassing the UN Security Council, on the grounds that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction and secretly supporting guerrillas. This in itself is a violation of existing international rules.

Everyone knows that the outbreak of the Iraq War is the product of the United States' implementation of global hegemony. The outbreak of the war was not authorized by the UN Security Council. Therefore, after the outbreak of the war, it was also strongly opposed by most governments in the world, including many of its Western allies and people.

In the Arab world, people from various countries spontaneously expressed their support for Iraq and opposed the unilateral war launched by the United States. Even young and middle-aged people from some countries spontaneously went to Iraq with weapons to join Iraq in fighting against the US-led coalition forces.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and other countries have issued statements in support of Iraq and warned the joint forces that if their naval ships and aircraft invade their territorial waters and airspace, they will not hesitate to destroy the invading warships and airspace.

Even fighter jets from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and other countries took off very frequently, the Arab Coalition Air Force issued cruise warnings, and the navy cruised in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

Oman's artillery and missile brigades are being mobilized and will block the Strait of Hormuz if necessary.

The Strait of Hormuz is not only blockaded by the Persians, Oman also has the ability to blockade the Strait of Hormuz.

At a NATO meeting, the Turkish representative called on NATO member states to fulfill NATO's collective defense clause.

NATO collective defense mainly refers to Article 5: The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be regarded as an attack against all of their members, and therefore they agree that in the event of such an armed attack, each of them shall exercise the individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article of the Charter of the United Nations, and will assist the party or parties attacked, and immediately take such action, individually and in conjunction with the other parties, as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain security in the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken therefrom shall be immediately reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council takes the necessary measures to restore and maintain international peace and security. The principle of collective defense is the core of NATO's founding treaty. It is this principle that binds NATO member states together, commits them to protect each other, and establishes a spirit of solidarity within the alliance.

Collective defense means that an attack on one ally is considered an attack on all.

Türkiye, on the grounds that it had been attacked by Iraq, demanded that other NATO member states fulfill the collective defense clause and that the NATO group take military action against Iraq.

However, the 16 NATO countries split into two groups. The United States, Britain, Canada, Italy, and Turkey all voted in favor, believing that the current situation is suitable for NATO's collective defense clause. However, Germany and other countries firmly opposed it, believing that this does not meet NATO's collective defense clause because the United States bypassed the United Nations to launch a war against Iraq. Turkey was attacked because it was its own fault because the US-led joint forces were in Turkey.

We can't let Iraq just take beatings without being able to fight back. This world can't be so unreasonable!
There was a lot of quarreling within the NATO group, and it was unable to reach a consensus, nor was it able to activate NATO's collective defense clause.

France, which is preparing to return to NATO, also has strong opinions and firmly opposes it.

Although NATO could not reach a consensus, it did not prevent the joint forces from launching a new round of attacks the next day.

On that day, the joint forces launched 299 Tomahawk cruise missiles and dispatched 1350 military aircraft to attack Iraq's navy, air force, radar positions, air defense positions, etc.

On the first day of the Iraq War, the huge losses made the joint forces extremely annoyed, and they even clamored to launch a nuclear strike on Iraq to destroy the Iraqi army.

However, the voice of the joint forces was strongly opposed by the outside world, which put enormous pressure on the United States and forced it to not dare to use nuclear weapons, even tactical nuclear weapons.

Because this chain reaction will not only affect Arab countries, but also other major countries!
In particular, the Polar Bear's Tu-160 strategic bomber flew around Japan, and then flew to Alaska and California, USA, for a strategic cruise. Its attitude can be imagined.

Nuclear balance is not just talk, it really exists.

Nuclear weapons are something that can have a ripple effect on the entire body, so no nuclear-armed country dares to use them indiscriminately.

All of a sudden, the joint forces no longer talked about using nuclear weapons, let alone strategic nuclear weapons, even tactical nuclear weapons were not allowed!
Just as the United States-led countries put pressure on the Soviet Union in the Afghan War, the polar bears are now putting pressure on the United States in the same way.

The Polar Bear even announced that it would close Turkmenistan’s land routes and military bases for the U.S. military and demanded that the U.S. military withdraw within one month.

The whole world is becoming more and more turbulent.

In today's era of economic globalization, the areas of cooperation among countries are constantly expanding and the degree of mutual dependence is constantly deepening. All countries in the world are facing common tasks in dealing with non-traditional security and maintaining world peace and stability.

Of course, while there is extensive cooperation among countries, there is also bound to be fierce competition, and competition among major powers has never stopped.

(End of this chapter)