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On November 11, 1990, in the residence of Iraq President Saddam Hussein, a conversation that could change the destiny of mankind was unfolding.
The two parties in the conversation were Comrade Qian Qichen, then Chinese Foreign Minister, and Saddam. The purpose of the conversation was to persuade Saddam to withdraw troops from Kuwait.
Saddam
At that time, Iraq launched a war of aggression against Kuwait, which aroused strong international dissatisfaction.
Subsequently, the multinational coalition led by the United States launched the "Desert Shield" plan to conduct military strikes on Iraq, and the international situation became extremely tense.
Looking back at history today, we can know that Saddam did not withdraw his troops at that time, but chose to fight to the end with the powerful US coalition forces and returned with a great defeat.
But with Iraq’s military strength, to be fair, it is not on the same level as the United States. Why did Saddam insist on refusing to withdraw his troops and commit suicide?
And what is the deep meaning behind Foreign Minister Qian’s behavior of communicating with him as our country’s diplomatic representative and persuading him to withdraw?
All of this probably started with the " Iran-Iraq War" that inflated Iraq and embarked on the road of aggression.
The historical environment of pre-war Iraq
The early twentieth century The Second World War , this catastrophe in human history caused great economic losses and casualties to the whole world.
After the war, countries around the world realized how serious the consequences of launching a war would be for the world. Therefore, although the invisible smoke of the Cold War is still permeating the air, peace and development remained the main tone of the international environment at that time.
Victory in World War II
But the Middle East is an exception!
Due to legacy historical issues, there have always been various conflicts between countries in the Middle East.
Various disputes such as border conflicts, religious conflicts, and ethnic conflicts have led to constant friction in the Middle East for decades.
During this period, Iraq once became one of the richest countries in the Middle East due to its superior location and huge oil and gas reserves.
With money in hand, Iraq straightened its back and began to squeal.
Baghdad, the capital of Iraq,
Therefore, in 1979, after Baath Party Saddam Hussein took over as president, Iraq began a series of "restless" operations.
After Saddam came to power, Iraq became rich and powerful, and seeking hegemony in the Gulf region became the main goal of the Iraqi government.
At that time, most of the Iraqi people were believers in the Shia sect of Islam. It happened that the newly elected leader of Iran, Khomeini, was the leader of the Shia sect. This made the Iraqis, who belonged to the Sunni sect, Dam felt very uneasy.
After all, Shia advocates a hereditary system of heirs and believes that only those who are born in the Hashemite family can be considered legitimate heirs. This is very different from the communal-selected inheritance system advocated by Sunnis.
Young Saddam
If the Shia sect's influence is allowed to expand, Saddam's own status will not be stable.
So in 1980, the second year after Saddam Hussein became president, when Iran had just experienced a revolutionary regime and was not yet stable, Iraq launched the protracted Iran-Iraq War.
"Soldiers are the most important thing for the country!" When the war is fought to the end, the two countries' national strength will be consumed the most.
The eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war caused huge economic losses to both Iran and Iraq.
The Iranian leader at the time, Khomeini
At the same time, due to the large purchases of military equipment from China, the United States, the Soviet Union and other world powers during the war, both sides also owed huge amounts of foreign debt.
Iraq, in particular, owes a foreign debt of up to 80 billion U.S. dollars after fighting with Iran until the country became a poor country. The main debtor countries are the brothers and neighbors of Iraq, which are also Arab countries.
’s debt to its largest creditor and neighbor Kuwait alone amounts to US$14 billion.
Although Kuwait is a small country, it is rich in various natural resources. gold reserves are also among the best in the Middle East.
Kuwait Capital Kuwait City
At that time, Kuwait was one of the richest countries in the world, and it can be said that it was extremely rich.
And historically, Iraq and Kuwait once belonged to the Turkish Empire . They were brothers who separated from each other, and their bones were broken and their tendons were connected.
Therefore, during the Iran-Iraq war, when its brother Iraq was fighting with Iran's Persians , Kuwait did not say anything and directly borrowed money from its own pocket to buy weapons for Iraq.
From Kuwait's perspective, this can be regarded as an investment. Seeing that the war was over, Kuwait began to urge Iraq to repay the money.
Saddam shot
But when creditors came to collect debts, Iraq refused to admit it.
At that time, Iraq had just finished the war, its national power was empty, and it had no ability to repay its huge debt. If Iraq fails to pay back the money it owes, it is not afraid of being poked in the back by all the countries in the world and calling it "shameless".
Because their "great" head of state Saddam gave all creditors a more "shameless" reason - We are fighting for the Arab countries!
Saddam said that in order to help his Arab brothers regain their right to speak in the Middle East, he went to war with Iran: We helped you fight a just war, and you should not ask for this money from us!
Saddam
Saddam also said that the international crude oil prices are falling again and again, which is a big blow to Arab countries that rely on oil exports:
In this case, Kuwait is still exploiting a large amount of oil, pushing down Price, you Kuwait is the scourge of the Middle East!
Kuwait saw that Saddam was really arrogant and unreasonable. He failed to collect debts and suffered a dumb loss, but he could only reluctantly start a war of words with Iraq.
But what Kuwait never expected was that it had raised a white-eyed wolf out of kindness, and Iraq was going to fight more than just a war of words.
On August 1, 1990, the negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait on the oil issue completely broke down!
At this moment, an evil plan was born in Saddam's head.
After the 1973 oil crisis , Kuwait relied on its huge oil reserves and became the "world's richest man" through oil trade!
But Kuwait has money. The country's military strength, including the police, is less than 20,000. They don't even have basic self-defense capabilities in the face of war.
Seeing that his country was extremely poor, Saddam thought to himself that we in Iraq had already chewed the hard nut of Iran, but we in Iraq had not yet swallowed the fat piece of Kuwait that was easy to bully?
The one who owes money is the eldest brother! When Saddam faced debt collection from his creditors, he not only refused to pay back the money, but also beat the creditors.
Kuwait is not guilty, but he is guilty of possessing the jade.
On August 2, 1990, Iraq launched a military attack on Kuwait, and the Kuwait War broke out.
In one day, the Iraqi army occupied the entire territory of Kuwait, successfully occupied the magpie's nest, and forced Kuwait to retreat to Saudi Arabia .
Saudi Arabia
I believe that Saddam at that time must have been dreaming of making Kuwait the nineteenth province of Iraq every day, and then using the huge wealth accumulated in Kuwait to strengthen the country and the army.
However, although Kuwait is a small country, it has many "bodyguards".
At that time, Kuwait was a major oil producer in many developed countries, led by the United States. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait will inevitably affect the oil supply of the United States and other countries.
Seeing that their own interests have been harmed, the Americans will not do anything, and they are ready to deal with Iraq.
The then US President Bush Sr.
What is interesting to say is that before this, the United States was originally a strong backer of Iraq.
Before the Iran-Iraq war broke out, Iran was experiencing an unprecedented revolution - the Iranian Islamic Revolution.
Starting in 1977, a mass movement to "oppose the king and establish a religious state" broke out in Iran.
In 1979, Islamic leader Khomeini ended his fifteen-year exile abroad and returned to Tehran, the capital of Iran, to lead the revolution.
In the same year, Reza Pahlavi, the king of Iran's Pahlavi dynasty, was forced to "vacate overseas."
Reza Pahlavi
Soon after, the Islamic Republic of Iran was established and a theocratic system was established. At the same time, the original regime the Pahlavi dynasty declared its demise.
However, in October 1979, the news that the former King of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, went to the United States to treat his illness caused extreme dissatisfaction among Iranian Muslims.
Some extreme Muslim people directly occupied the US Embassy in Iran and detained US embassy personnel. This is the famous " Iran Hostage Crisis ".
Because of this crisis, the United States and Iran turned against each other and severed diplomatic relations from then on.
Therefore, when the Iran-Iraq war broke out, the United States became a strong supporter of Iraq and sold a large amount of weapons and equipment to Iraq for military strikes against Iran.
But now that Iraq has taken the initiative to attack Kuwait, it has caused trouble for the Americans.
Because once Iraq incorporates Kuwait into its territory, Iraq, which has a strong military, will immediately take off the label of a "poor country".
Such a country that can fight and has money is established in the Middle East. For the United States, which is committed to establishing a "new international order," it is a complete thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh.
Moreover, although Kuwait's land area is small, it is geographically located between Iraq and the Persian Gulf , firmly blocking Iraq's outlet to the sea.
If Iraq successfully occupies Kuwait, from then on Iraq will be able to enter and exit the Persian Gulf at will, opening the door to maritime trade. In this way, sooner or later, Iraq will integrate the Middle East into a whole.
The main oil suppliers to Western countries such as the United States are Middle Eastern countries. If the Middle East countries were scattered, the oil exports of various countries would be in a competitive relationship, and they would compete to export low-priced oil to obtain profits.
Once the Middle East countries are united as a whole and the oil export channels become single, they will gain maximum benefits through "bargaining" with Western countries.
Therefore, in order to prevent its own interests from being damaged, the United States feels that it must intervene because of "reason and emotion"!
This military operation in Iraq is an outright aggression and a completely unjust act.
The US emperor is best at pretending to be justice. It immediately dispatched six aircraft carrier battle groups , and directly pulled the troops to the Arab region on August 7.
The attitude of the United States has been very clear: Iraq, please be honest and go home. If you dare to come out and cause trouble again, I will beat you!
But when Iraq had money, he could be "poor". Now that he has no money but has won a war, he can also be "poor".
Iraq dared to go head-to-head with the United States because Saddam believed he had the capability.
Although the protracted Iran-Iraq war caused Iraq to lose all its wealth, it also cultivated a steel army with nearly one million people.
Saddam naively believed that the American troops, which had been defeated in the Korean battlefield and the Vietnam battlefield, had no chance of winning against him.
The destroyed portrait of Saddam
Saddam feels good about himself, but someone with understanding can see at a glance that Iraq and Saddam are about to be in disaster! Who is this person
? That is our Foreign Minister Qian Qichen.
Far-sighted
As we all know, China has always been a country that calls for peace. Iraq's unauthorized attack on a sovereign country is completely unethical and China is firmly opposed to it.
Qian Qichen
Putting aside these empty words, a war in the Middle East will inevitably affect the global oil supply, which is very detrimental to China, which was experiencing rapid economic development and a substantial increase in oil demand.
To put it bluntly, on issues such as oil and natural gas supply, our position is consistent with that of major countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union.
So, based on emotion and reason, we all have to stop Saddam's aggressive behavior.
In November 1990, when American soldiers were deployed in the Persian Gulf, Foreign Minister Qian Qichen flew all the way to Iraq, hoping to dissuade the self-willed Saddam Hussein from withdrawing troops from Kuwait .
Iraq has offended too many people, and finally a big country is willing to sit down and talk with them, so why don’t you quickly entertain them?
Even Saddam, who has always been accustomed to being a master, this time also personally received our Foreign Minister Qian as a distinguished guest.
Foreign Minister Qian Qichen was not a vague person. He immediately pointed out that Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was an unjust act and advised Saddam to use peaceful means to solve the problem.
China has made its attitude clear, but Saddam is still messing around. said that Kuwait and Iraq have been one country since ancient times, just like mainland China and Hong Kong, and it is natural for them to take it back.
Seeing Saddam's strong rhetoric, he also brought up the sensitive Hong Kong issue at the time in order to beautify himself. Foreign Minister Qian Qichen said angrily that this is not the same thing at all.
Hong Kong has always been China's inherent territory, but was leased by the British. Mainland China and Hong Kong have always been one country!
Kuwait is an internationally recognized sovereign country, and Iraq and Kuwait have diplomatic relations with each other's embassies. Saddam is confusing concepts!
Saddam was always talking strong words, but now he has nothing to say.
Foreign Minister Qian saw that Saddam was incompetent, so he could only analyze the current situation and get him to retreat.
Foreign Minister Qian pointed out that although Iraq has one million troops, its military strength is still too weak in the face of the United States, which has strong military strength.
What's more, The United Nations has passed sanctions resolutions on Iraq, and Iraq has become a loner in the international community.
Without assistance from all countries in the world, how could Iraq, with its weak military and industrial strength, be the opponent of the multinational coalition?
US Army Commander Schwarzkov
The current situation has been clearly analyzed by Foreign Minister Qian, but Saddam is still determined to go his own way, believing that Iraq can copy the achievements of the people of North Korea and Vietnam and once again repel the United States.
Indeed, the United States suffered a defeat in the Korean battlefield and had no good results in the Vietnam battlefield.
But the situation at that time was that the United States took the initiative to go to war with North Korea and Vietnam, which was very different from the current situation.
This time, Iraq invaded first. The U.S. military came to the Gulf region to "act on behalf of God," and no one in the international community supported Iraq.
As the saying goes, it's hard to persuade a damned devil with good words. Foreign Minister Qian saw that Saddam still felt good about himself after he had been persuading him sincerely for so long. There was nothing he could do about this headstrong man. This visit ended like this.
Shortly thereafter, on January 17, 1991, with the consent of the United Nations, the multinational coalition led by the United States officially went to war against Iraq!
Although Saddam was arrogant, stubborn, and self-willed, he still had the necessary military qualities to lead Iraq into fighting for so many years.
He knew that although Iraq's military strength was known as the fourth in the world, it was still vulnerable to the powerful multinational coalition.
Iraqi soldiers
During the Iran-Iraq War, although the weapons and equipment of both sides were advanced equipment purchased from China, the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries, the military quality of both sides was extremely backward.
Neither Iran nor Iraq has the ability to command large-scale army operations, and they are still playing the same game as when fought .
At the end of the war, both sides simply resorted to the human sea tactic, fighting each other purely for human lives!
Iraq does not have many outstanding generals and combat strategies like our army. Their "World War I tactics" were simply not enough to impress the well-equipped Western armies.
Sure enough, not long after the war started, Iraq had completely lost its air superiority under the precise air strikes of the multinational coalition.
This is not what Saddam expected, because he did not bet the treasure of this war on the air force.
During the Korean War and the Vietnam War , the US military also had absolute air supremacy. However, North Korea and Vietnam used tactics such as lengthening the front line and ground guerrillas to pull the United States into the quagmire of war and achieved final victory.
Saddam believes that when his ground forces can formally fight against the multinational coalition forces and fight hand-to-hand, that will be the day when Iraq wins!
However, times have changed...
The US imperialists can make the first mistake in North Korea and the second mistake in Vietnam, but they will not make the third mistake in Iraq.
Because the era of information warfare has arrived, they have begun to fight electronic warfare !
U.S. military fighter jets spread across the Iraqi sky like a big net, directly destroying the Iraqi command center and radar system through round after round of precise air strikes.
Without the command center, hundreds of thousands of troops were unable to receive any orders; the radar system was destroyed, making it impossible for Iraqis to detect the location of the US military.
This made the million-strong army that Saddam was proud of turn into a headless fly in an instant, and fell apart in an instant. Now Iraq has no other choice but to swallow missiles one after another!
When Baghdad was bombed to pieces, we don't know if Saddam regretted not listening to Foreign Minister Qian's advice and insisting on going his own way, which led to the current defeat.
But we know that because of Saddam's insistence, Iraq was slapped hard on behalf of the world.
Had it not been for Iraq’s deliberate provocation of war, we don’t know how long it would have taken for us to realize that the era of information warfare has arrived.
This war has taught us and even the whole world a good lesson.
The blood and tears of the Iraqi people have served as a wake-up call for the whole world. And Saddam's stubbornness and refusal to listen to advice also explained what it means to have an incompetent general kill a thousand troops...
The so-called "learn from the barbarians to gain skills to defeat the barbarians". It is precisely because of this historical opportunity that our country began to move toward information-based warfare. Times move forward.
Since then, our country's military strength has been greatly developed, and it has gradually mastered the capabilities of information warfare.
This world is not always peaceful, and the crisis of war always exists in some corner of the world. And our ability to live safely is entirely due to our country's strong military strength.
Now, whenever our country's J-20 fighter jets take off, whenever the Liaoning aircraft carrier sets sail, and whenever the People's Liberation Army is waiting for danger, we will definitely lament that living in a powerful country, very nice!
What do readers think about the meeting between Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and Saddam Hussein, and Iraq's eventual defeat in the Gulf War? Please leave your opinions in the comment area.
