Chapter 275: Last hope

The Riyadh base is a US base located in the Saudi capital, and it is also the command centre for US troops and multinational forces of the United Nations in the Gulf region.

At 3 pm on 13 February, which was 8 am US time, US four-star Admiral Norman Schwarzkopf, commander-in-chief of the 700,000-strong multinational force in the Gulf, arrived at the operations room. Several officers from the general staff were already waiting, and two people from the communications department were testing the equipment, because Normandy was about to report to the President on the other side of the world.

Normandy sat down in the chair that had been prepared for him and muttered to himself. He pulled at the collar of his jacket. His adjutant saw this and asked with a smile, 'General, are you still not used to the desert climate in the Gulf region?'

Normandy nodded and said, 'Yes, it's too dry and hot here. If it were in New Jersey, I think it would be the beginning of spring when the snow melts, and you would still need to wear a fur coat. It's not like here, where if you don't drink water for a minute, I feel like my throat is going to crack.'

'But you don't need to worry, General. I think with your abilities, I'm afraid it will be at most another week before you can go back,' said the secretary.

'You can never be sure of anything in battle. We as soldiers can't say things like that,' commented Normandy.

Despite the criticism, the secretary continued, 'That's just being modest, General. Everyone in the army knows that we have the upper hand. In the previous month of air strikes, the Iraqi air force and army have suffered devastating blows, but they have not even encountered us once. In this I'm afraid they've already lost hope under such attacks. How can such an army, which has already lost all fighting spirit, hold back our attack?'

This time, Normandy did not criticise his adjutant again, because the situation was so clear, and it was good to maintain the troops' high morale and confidence in victory.

Confidence is not the same as arrogance. No matter how much of an advantage he had gained through the two large-scale air raids, the enemy still had over a million troops. Regardless of the quality of these troops and air defence, it would cause itself a great deal of trouble. And in 1991, when the use of weapons of mass destruction was not permitted, it was simply impossible to kill a million troops in an air strike.

Therefore Normandy finally said, 'So we all hope that the final assault will come soon, to deal Iraq the final blow!'

After some preparation, his adjutant made the call, and as the call was made, a picture immediately appeared on the large screen in front of Normandy: it was a picture from the White House, with President Walsh, Vice President Aldridge and other important members of the president's cabinet.

'General General, I'm sorry to interrupt your lunch break, but I think you'll miss the New Jersey snow more than the desert sun, so I need to know what's going on in the war across the Gulf,' said Walsh, starting things off.

'Mr. Mr President, I really think you should come and see for yourself. The dry climate and the drastic temperature differences between morning and evening are a sure sign that they are not our friends.'

Normandy Norman spread his hands out and said with a relaxed air, 'Okay, now let's get down to business. This morning we conducted a precision bombing of a military camp in the southern suburbs of Badina. bombing. This is the most important reason why I interrupted your breakfast and asked to connect with you, because according to the information we received, then Iraqi President Saddam was there to comfort the soldiers.'

Walsh exclaimed in surprise, 'That's a surprise. So what was the result?'

'According to According to comprehensive intelligence, our air strike did hit the target, but whether or not Iraqi President Saddam was killed in the air strike ultimately requires further confirmation,' said Normandy.

'Let's pray that

(this chapter is not finished, please turn the page) hope that their God can protect the Iraqi president from dying, so that we can end the war sooner.' Walsh said.

Normandy had no comment on this, but as a four-star general, he was of course well aware of how much of a negative impact a commander who had been attacked but not killed would have on the entire campaign , especially when he is in such a disadvantageous situation. He will be extremely afraid of the war, and this fear will shake his confidence in the war. The end result is that he will surrender on his own initiative.

Of course it is also possible that this will provoke a person's rebelliousness, making them fight to the death with an enemy who is almost killing them, but that is generally for madmen who have been driven to the edge of a cliff. Salm, as a dictator, he obviously would prefer to retain his position and continue to rule the country. As long as he promises to retain his power, the war can be easily ended.

'Then let's get back to the war then, General of Normandy, what is your next plan of attack?' asked Walsh.

'Propaganda propaganda offensive to break the enemy's will to resist,' said Normandy. 'Next, our planes will drop bombs while scattering propaganda leaflets, telling Iraqi soldiers that surrendering will be more worthwhile than holding out. When the enemy's will to resist has been completely broken, I will immediately launch a ground attack to end the war.'

'That's a good plan, but I have one more question. My general, how will you know when the enemy's will to resist has been broken?' Walsh asked.

Normandy replied, 'I have a very simple way of determining this: deserters. Once the soldiers lose their fighting spirit, they will want to escape, especially in the case of an unfaithful dictatorship army.'

'I I see. I hope the celebration dinner the White House is throwing for the general will start soon, and I'll definitely toast you in person!

With the video call ended, but Normandy did not immediately get up from his seat. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets, where he found a telegram. Normandy crushed it into a ball, cursing inwardly: 'The Addams Family, those damned capitalists, why can't they make war a bit more pure? Our soldiers are not pawns in your business machinations!

Suddenly the adjutant's voice came to his ear: 'General, this call has ended. Do you need to give battle orders?'

Normandy opened his eyes and saw his adjutant looking at him with concern. Normandy let out a long breath and said, 'Go ahead, the operation plan for code name Faith.'

When Normandy had given the order to attack, more than 30 transport aircraft took off from six US air bases in the Gulf region and headed towards Iraq.

Hillah was one of Iraq's forward bases in Kuwait, with an armoured corps of 50,000 stationed here. It was also the first line of defence against a possible attack by the multinational forces.

In the afternoon , all the Iraqi soldiers were hiding in the underground fortifications to rest, and only the people on duty were in the sentry post, chattering and complaining about the bias of the officers. After all, now that the parties no longer had air defence, in the face of the enemy there was no other way than to pray for protection against the enemy's imminent air strike. How could they not curse their fate on such a life-and-death watch?

Suddenly , the familiar roar of an engine came from the sky, and all the soldiers on duty screamed and ran, hiding in the air-raid shelter.

But a few huge black shadows swept across the sky, and the explosions they had expected did not come. They peeked out to see what was happening, and saw sheets of paper slowly falling from the sky like snowflakes.

Driven by curiosity, the Iraqi soldiers cautiously stepped out of the bunker. They picked up the papers and found that they were all leaflets with a propaganda painting on them. The content depicted Saddam, portrayed as a devil, gnawing on a chicken leg while brandishing a whip

(this This chapter is incomplete, please turn the page) enslaved the emaciated Iraqi people, and Iraqi soldiers who surrendered to the multinational forces were given lamb chops and beef.

In addition to the cartoons, there was also a line of text: How long will you fight for the devil? For you and your family, please heed the call of Allah!

Although Iraqi officers began confiscating the comics as soon as they were discovered and strictly forbade anyone to keep them, threatening violators with military punishment.

But many Iraqi soldiers still saw them, and the content of these comics began to spread among the Iraqi army. Saddam is enslaving our brothers and sisters. Is this war really the right thing to do? Should we continue to fight for that hated dictator? Or should we quit the war and escape to the civilized world?

These questions arose in the minds of all Iraqi soldiers, and that night more than 40 of them deserted from the Iraqi army barracks.

And when the next day and the day after, as US aircraft dropped leaflets on Iraqi positions and carried out small-scale bombings, the number of Iraqi soldiers deserting also increased more and more. On the fourth day, the number of deserters reached an exaggerated 1,000. This undoubtedly showed that the morale of the Iraqi army had reached rock bottom.

Or At the first line of Iraqi positions in Hillah, at 5am on 18 February, the US Expeditionary Force's 1st Armoured Division launched a full-scale attack on Hillah, supported by air power.

'Hillah is under heavy attack from the enemy. We need support, lots of support!'

The Iraqi commander in the The Iraqi commander at the base was screaming into the phone like crazy. Since Iraq had suffered heavy losses in previous air strikes by multinational forces, in order to defend against the US ground attack, Majid could only redeploy troops from the Basra frontline to Hilla.

However what Al-Majid never expected was that as soon as his troops left Basra, American planes and missiles swooped in and pounded the Iraqi army on the road. At the same time, the US 3rd and 4th 4th Marine Divisions also moved out. Their target was Basra, which had lost its defence forces. After occupying a stronghold in Basra, they circled back to Kuwait and delivered a beautiful left hook to the Iraqi army stationed there.

The frontline flown back to Badina as soon as possible. Majid walked quickly into the presidential palace with the report in his hand: 'President, we've lost the front line completely!'

Hearing Majid's words, Salm jumped out of bed. He took over Majid's report, read it without looking at it, immediately crumpled it into a ball and slammed it on the ground, saying, 'Who told you to redeploy the troops from Basra? If there were still troops stationed in Basra, the Americans would not have been able to gain such a strategic advantage so easily. You have ruined the entire war situation!'

Majid Mageed lowered his head, even though he knew very well that if he hadn't redeployed the troops from Basra, the breakthrough on the Hilla front would have happened sooner or later. But he didn't explain, because there was no point.

Seeing that Jide didn't say anything, so Salm dejectedly sat back on the bed and said bitterly, 'Surrender.'

When Salm said this, Majid immediately widened his eyes: 'Surrender? President cousin, we can't surrender, if we surrender we risk losing our power!'

'But now we are about to lose control of our power!' said Salm. 'My cousin, haven't you read the war reports? have all surrendered to the Americans. That's our entire 200,000-strong army in Kuwait, and they've all surrendered. Tell me, under the circumstances, who can still help us? Where is there even a glimmer of hope?'

'Hua Zhou Ming,' said Majid, 'will be back today. He is our last hope.'