Time Travel 04: I Fight the US in the Middle East

Downtown, newspaper office.

Lieutenant Colonel Gary Wallersky looked extremely grim as he watched the live video transmitted from the helicopter.

Burning flames, dead soldiers, a horrific scene... This shouldn't be happening to the American army at all. They were the ones who decimated Saddam's army back then, and now...

"Currently, it seems that the number of Mahdi troops remaining in the city is no more than one hundred, and may even be only a few. However, they are adept at using the terrain and the surrounding civilians. Next, we need to wipe them out of the entire city..."

Major Joseph McDonald had compiled the entire account of the encounter and begun his analysis, but before he could finish, Lieutenant Colonel Gary Wallersky interrupted him: "No, no, their main force is definitely still in the city, disguised as ordinary civilians!"

What?

The battalion commander means... those who looted supplies were all Mahdi Army soldiers? Are you planning a city-wide massacre? If we do that... are you sure we won't be court-martialed?

At this moment, Gary Wallersky was rapidly piecing together the known information in an attempt to find the whole picture.

It's obvious that this was all a carefully designed trap!

The enemy made us think that this place was safe and started to station troops, but in reality, it was just to lull us into a false sense of security!

Only when their own transport convoy arrived did the enemy launch a full-scale attack. This was not just to plunder supplies, but also to... starve their own troops to death!

The weather was scorching hot, and the engines of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles couldn't be shut down; while on standby, fuel was constantly being consumed...

Once the fuel runs out, those armored monsters become useless lumps of iron!

These Mahdi soldiers have quite the appetite; they want to devour their entire battalion!

"When will the next batch of supplies arrive?" Gary Wallerski asked, thinking to himself.

"I don't know. This is the only FSC branch near us right now. If we want to transfer one from another city, it would probably take until midnight to get there..."

midnight?

As expected, this was all planned by the Mahdi army! Their fuel reserves would only last until sunset at most!

At night, the Mahdi army will launch an attack. Without the support of heavy weapons, this force will be vulnerable, and the Mahdi army can take advantage of the terrain to easily hunt down their troops, especially that terrifying Grim Reaper Juba...

"Immediately contact division headquarters and request an evacuation from Sadr City!"

What? Major Joseph McDonald was shocked. He had just thought the battalion commander was going to massacre the city, and now the battalion commander was going to retreat?

At the same time, in a courtyard within the city.

"Brother Azam, well done!" Amr-Elwan Ibrahim saw Azam returning from the retreat and immediately went up to him for a hug, then pressed his face against Azam's...

Azam felt a little uncomfortable. Two grown men could just shake hands; why did they have to be so affectionate? If it were a woman…

Cough cough, women can't even shake hands.

Actually, the customs of the Yi Tuo are quite good. In the Ke Tuo or Ka Tuo, close males will kiss each other on the forehead or nose...

Of course, the most perverse thing was in the 1970s, when the top leader of the Soviet Union, Brezhnev, liked to gnaw on each other...

In this way, the matter of etiquette is forgotten.

After the two parted, Azam plopped down in a chair, and Mariam had already brought him some black tea.

"Thank you." Azam picked up the glass and gulped it down in one go. It was definitely better without sugar. Only Mariam knew his own taste.

"Brother Azam, your operation today was brilliant. However, I have a question. Why didn't you just plant roadside bombs instead of shooting the machine gunner in the lead Humvee first?" asked Khalil Maliki, a burly Mahdi Army officer.

Azam put down his teacup and looked at the other person: "What do you think?"

I?

If I could figure it out, I wouldn't have asked you!

Another officer, Ali Hazem, chimed in: "If we plant roadside bombs directly, the enemy might become suspicious. Firing a shot to take out the machine gunner first will scare them and make them risk advancing."

Azam nodded. Among these people, there were also intelligent ones who learned warfare through war.

This battle was swift and decisive, but there's much to learn from it! Even Azam can't be complacent; he needs to analyze the shortcomings of this battle, propose improvements, and strive for perfection…

The battle analysis lasted for more than twenty minutes. Everyone brainstormed and felt that they had all made progress. As they were talking, a delicious aroma wafted out.

"Captain Azam, dinner is ready!" Mariam came out carrying a large metal platter: "These are the American supplies we captured today. I thought this was the simplest, so I just heated it up."

When the U.S. military is fighting in the field, it needs field rations that are technologically advanced and meticulously crafted. Previously, these were mainly divided into four types.

A-rations are the hot meals that soldiers like to eat the most. They are made in the field kitchen with fresh meat, vegetables, fruits and so on. However, these rations are hard to come by. After all, in order to save money, the U.S. military cut more than 3,000 cooking positions in the 1980s. Daily meals in the camp are outsourced to the outside world. Cooks are only available in the field.

A battalion of 800 men can only be assigned a cooking team of about 22 men, which is good enough to heat up individual meals!

This is B-grade food, also known as MRE. As for C and D, they are the old almanacs. C is just canned food, and D is chocolate Logan bars. To prevent people from eating them, they are deliberately made to taste very bad.

After the Cold War ended, a completely new T-ration was invented.

This is food served on a large stainless steel food plate, which is 31.1 cm long, 25.4 cm wide, and 5.4 cm deep. This large plate can be heated in hot water and is enough to serve more than a dozen people!

The metal plate has been heated and the seal has been broken, revealing the food inside.

Turkey strips, green beans, chocolate pudding, creamed potatoes, peanut butter, jelly, macaroni, cheese...

Azam still prefers freshly made food, but now... he feels more accomplished eating captured food. So, he picked up a turkey stick and was about to put it in his mouth when he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, and it seems we also seized some barley juice?"

On such a hot day, I need a beer... cough cough, barley juice to quench my thirst!

"Barley juice? There is a batch, I'll go get it right away!" Ali-Hazim walked outside and quickly returned carrying a bundle of barley juice bottles.

Azam took it, bit off the cap, and gulped it down... So refreshing! Finally, I felt like I was back in my pre-time travel days!

"Brother Azam, shall we discuss the next steps?" Amr-Elwan Ibrahim asked.