The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 523 Compromise
Five days after the airstrike, Gaddafi did not show up.

It was not until the evening of the sixth day that Gaddafi, who had recovered from the shock, appeared on Libyan television for the first time after the air strike and delivered a tit-for-tat television speech.

"Superior military power cannot defeat national will and the spirit of readiness to sacrifice. We will fight the U.S. military on a wider battlefield, and that battlefield is the whole world!" Gaddafi roared on the TV screen: "The Bedouin tents are stronger than American skyscrapers. The great Libyan people will never succumb to the tyranny of imperialism!"

The United States wants to bomb Gaddafi to death and force Libya to surrender through bombing.

But Gaddafi insisted on holding on to the end!
Gaddafi hated the United States even more. His beloved adopted daughter, his most beloved son and daughter were all killed in the bombing.

This hatred made Gaddafi hate the United States even more.

Coupled with the Soviet Union's promise, Gaddafi chose to be tough to the end.

One step back means death, only moving forward means life!
next morning.

A grand funeral was held at the Hani Cemetery on the outskirts of Tripoli, the capital of Libya. Dark wooden coffins were lined up in a row on the cemetery. Among them, four coffins stood out and were placed in the middle of all the coffins.

The funeral was solemn and dignified.

The women, all dressed in long, head-to-toe Arab robes, stood in a row along the wall, weeping. The men, all without shoes, stood in the cemetery, their eyes blazing with anger.

Some men sat in front of the coffin and recited the Quran!
The funeral ceremony lasted for three hours, with a row of fully armed soldiers firing three consecutive volleys into the sky with Type 78 rifles as a salute to the deceased.

Hani Cemetery is a martyrs' cemetery where national heroes who died in the battle to overthrow the Italian colonial rulers are buried.

In addition to Gaddafi's two sons, a daughter and an adopted daughter, there are hundreds of heroes who entered the heroes' cemetery this time. They all died in the US air strikes on Libya and were brave soldiers who fought bravely.

The Libyan radio station issued a victory broadcast, claiming that during the US air strikes on Libya, the Libyan air defense forces fought bravely and shot down more than 200 US aircraft, sank five US warships, and captured more than 100 parachuted US pilots.

The US Department of Defense flatly denied that more than 200 planes were shot down that day, but they refused to disclose how many planes were shot down in the air strike.

While the US officials were denying it, Libyan TV, Soviet National TV, French TV and British TV were invited to attend the display of Libya's war results.

Among the wreckage of the planes, you can vaguely see the American logo, which all indicates that they are American planes that have been shot down.

There were also soldiers wearing American pilot uniforms. These soldiers all had wounds on their bodies and had obviously been beaten a lot. These prisoners were all dejected.

And this picture quickly spread throughout the world.

The United States was furious and the intensity of its air strikes, which had already been reduced, suddenly increased again.

This time, the United States once again sent hundreds of aircraft to attack Libya.

This time the crackdown is wider in scope, covering government agencies, hospitals and schools.

What humanitarianism, what attack on military facilities only, these fig leaves were torn off, revealing their hideous faces.

After ten consecutive days of air strikes, except for the unfortunate situation of being shot down by Libya's portable air defense missiles, the US military suffered far less losses than the previous two times.

This made the U.S. military more certain of its judgment that Libya's air force, navy, and air defense forces were finished, and they no longer had long-range and high-range air defense missiles.

Even based on the density of anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns, the US military also judged that Libya's anti-aircraft artillery shells and anti-aircraft machine gun bullets were basically exhausted.

Now Libya is like a weak and pitiful beautiful girl in front of the United States, wearing gauze in front of a strange uncle. But when the US military was about to continue air strikes on Libya, the Soviet Union's actions forced the US military to stop.

In Europe, Soviet troops, whether army, navy or air force, were frequently mobilized, ready to take advantage of the loss of many US aircraft and warships to launch an attack.

You should know that the Warsaw Pact could deploy 88.7 troops in East Germany and the Czech Republic at the first time, 95.73 troops in other war zones in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union had 231.1 million troops.

In the Central European battlefield, the Warsaw Pact's military strength was equally strong, and was no less than that of the NATO allies.

The Soviet troops stationed in East Germany included 10 tank divisions, 7 mechanized infantry divisions, 3 tank armies, 2 combined armies, and 1 aviation force, totaling 37 people, 7000 main battle tanks, 2800 infantry fighting vehicles, 900 combat aircraft, and 300 helicopters.

此时的苏联部队依旧无比强大，苏联空军同样非常强大，空军总兵力为42万人，编成39个师90个团，装备各型飞机1.3万架，其中作战飞机5082架，包括远程轰炸机177架、歼击轰炸机1780架、强击机460架、歼击机2130架、侦察机475架、电子战飞机60架、运输机620架。

The Soviet Union's Tu-95MS strategic bombers and Tu-23M3 strategic bombers have appeared in the skies over Europe.

The United States' NATO allies screamed one after another, strongly demanding that the US Air Force must be stationed at the original air force base and must not be transferred away, and that the United States cannot be distracted.

The shadow of 81 has been hanging over Europe and the whole world.

Especially at this time, several major TV stations in Europe were still broadcasting edited videos from 81.

Europe's opposition to the US action in Libya suddenly increased in voice and strength.

Even Britain suddenly became opposed.

Because in just one week, the Soviet army could drink water from the Atlantic coast and look at the British Isles with a smile.

Britain does not want to see this happen. By that time, Britain would definitely not be able to withstand the pressure from the Soviet Union.

Therefore, the United States can no longer deploy its forces in Libya unnecessarily.

Libya is just a small country with a population of less than 400 million. It is not as important as Europe.

The United States was very angry and very furious about the Soviet Union's move.

But no matter how angry you are, you have to compromise.

Because the United States cannot afford the consequences of losing Europe. Once it loses Europe, the United States can only retreat back to America, and even South America will be difficult to control, so it can only retreat back to the United States.

That is enough to make the United States lose its position as the maritime hegemon!
At that time, there would be no need to talk about competition anymore, we could just raise the white flag.

Not only can the United States no longer maintain its air strikes on Libya, it also has to mobilize aircraft from its homeland to Europe to restore its air power in Europe.

Because this time, the United States did lose a large number of aircraft.

At the same time, the United States gritted its teeth and purchased more advanced aircraft to make up for its own losses.

It can be said that the United States suffered heavy losses in the two consecutive operations, but the only thing it gained was venting its anger, which it did on Libya. It also established its authority and warned those countries that want to provoke the United States that the tiger's butt cannot be touched.

If you touch a tiger's butt, the tiger will get angry and eat you!

(End of this chapter)