The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

It is said that a new year brings a new beginning, but 2004 had a bad start and it was not easy for George Walton.

The voices of opposition grew louder and louder, and even he was under great pressure.

"We don't have time to wait any longer. Our people can endure the Vietnam War for several years, but they will have to endure our Iraq War in months. Since the outbreak of the Iraq War, can our powerful military force only rely on air strikes to win honor for us?" George Wharton was very angry.

In his nationally televised speech launching the Iraq War, he told Americans that the Iraq War would soon be over.

According to the combat plan formulated by the army, the first step is to rely on high-intensity air strikes to attack the Iraqi army, destroy Iraq's war potential, and cause the Iraqi army to suffer heavy losses in the air strikes. This step is to destroy Iraq's air defense and air force.

Wait until the time is right before launching a ground attack.

And this is exactly what the United States has summarized from its experience in the Gulf War.

Therefore, before the war broke out, the United States dispatched six aircraft carrier formations to the Mediterranean, Arabian Sea, and Persian Gulf, carrying a large number of missiles and bombs. Then it transported a large number of missiles, weapons and ammunition to Turkey and deployed a large number of aircraft.

But now, after launching missiles and carrying out air strikes, it has become clear that they are strong on the outside but weak on the inside.

Despite consuming a large number of missiles and losing a large number of aircraft, they still failed to destroy Iraq's air defense and air force, let alone destroy Iraq's war potential.

By now, the U.S. finances have already begun to tighten.

Nowadays, wars are fought for money!

The United States handled the affairs of Germany and Japan well. Although it will be difficult for it to influence Germany in the future, it sucked a lot of blood from Japan. Together with the proceeds from the trade, it amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Logically speaking, hundreds of billions of dollars is already a huge amount of money.

But you have to know that the United States is not only fighting the Iraq War, but also the Afghanistan War.

The daily consumption of the two wars was staggering.

Congress has approved the 2004 U.S. defense budget, but George Walton has not yet signed it.

In the new year, the US defense budget will reach 7500 billion US dollars.

Although the United States has launched quantitative easing, coupled with the stimulus of war, the US economy appears to be booming, but Americans themselves know how the economy is actually doing.

Look, the newly issued U.S. Treasury bonds cannot be sold!
This is simply hell!
Coupled with the fact that the families and relatives of American soldiers who died in the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq were making trouble, George Walton did not sleep well last night.

The United States must give a decent explanation to the country for the incident at Incelik Air Base and use a clean and neat battle to demonstrate the strength of the U.S. military!

There are also doubts about the Tomahawk cruise missile and the Patriot missile, and there must be an explanation for this as well.

In the Iraq War, the performance of the Tomahawk cruise missile was disappointing, far from the good effect that the US military had previously estimated. As for the Patriot missile, there have been constant doubts since the start of the Afghanistan War, but because the guerrillas soon ran out of missiles, these doubts were gradually forgotten.

But the Iraq War was different. Iraq was much stronger and had a large number of missiles. The performance of the Patriot missiles was disappointing. Even Israel expressed dissatisfaction with the Patriot missiles.

"The recent situation is unusual." CIA Director Kennett said: "According to our investigation, before Christmas, Iraq had no ballistic missiles, the Scud missiles had been used up, and we blew up Iraq's missile manufacturing plant. And according to the military's response, before Christmas, Iraq's air defense force had been exhausted. But now, Iraq's air defense force has been restored again, and there are Scud missiles. And it is obvious that the Tomahawk cruise missiles have been interfered with and cannot be located by GPS. Iraq will never research these technologies on its own. There must be a black hand behind the scenes!"

"It must have been done by the Russians. They have always been against us. Now that we are attacking Iraq, they must be dissatisfied, so they are sabotaging us behind our backs! They can transport weapons to the Iraqis by air and land!" Powell said in a deep voice.

"It could also be Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, which have been very unhappy with our launching of the Iraq War. We have evidence that they are providing weapons to Iraq and sending troops to help Iraq."

"besides."

"Don't worry about these things!" George Walton waved his hand and said, "What we need to do is to use our powerful military force to crush Iraq! Overthrow Saddam's regime and support Iraq's new democratic government!"

It’s no secret who is doing these private things.

Just like when the Soviet Union launched the Afghan War, the United States was also secretly taking actions to provide funds, weapons, and ammunition to the Afghan guerrillas, and to train the Afghan guerrillas so that the Afghan guerrillas could attack the Soviet army and continue to bleed the Soviet army.

Similarly, when the United States launched the Vietnam War and was ultimately defeated in Vietnam, wasn't it because there was a socialist camp behind Vietnam?

Now that the United States has launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is normal for other countries to make small moves behind the scenes.

This kind of thing cannot be discussed openly.

"Can our army launch an attack from the ground? Or conduct a landing operation?" George Wharton asked his staff.

"No! Iraq still has a strong military force. If the joint ground forces from the Turkish direction launch an attack and conduct a tough battle, we will suffer heavy casualties. In the Persian Gulf, the Iraqis have deployed a large number of mines. Without destroying their air force and air defense forces, we will not be able to clear these mines and carry out landing operations!" Rumsfeld shook his head.

"One month, and give the Air Force and Navy another month to destroy Iraq's air defense and air forces, and then launch a ground offensive. We don't have much time left!" George Walton said firmly: "The people can't give us ten or eight years to fight Iraq, or even four or five years. We must end this war in the first half of this year and overthrow Saddam's regime!"

This year is not an ordinary year, it is an election year!

As it relates to the election, only if the Iraq War is ended in the first half of the year can George Wharton be absolutely sure of being re-elected.

Otherwise, if we delay any further, unexpected events are bound to happen!

Now his opponents are attacking him by accusing him of starting two wars.

Only by winning the Iraq War and gaining tangible benefits will the opponents have no leverage over him and the people will support him. (End of this chapter)