This modern war began in the Gulf War, and then experienced the Yugoslav war of 1999, the Afghan war of 200 1, and the second Gulf war (Iraq war) in 2003.
1 Gulf War
1989-199 1 year, great changes have taken place in the international political arena. The former socialist countries in eastern Europe gradually evolved into capitalist countries, and the Soviet Union gradually disintegrated. In this way, the bipolar pattern formed since the end of the Cold War, the strength of the Soviet Union (later Russia) has been greatly weakened, and it no longer has the strength to fully compete with the United States. As a result, only the United States is playing a one-man show on the international stage. America's ambition to dominate the world is rapidly expanding. At the same time, due to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the so-called "power vacuum" appeared in many parts of the world, that is, the so-called original balance was broken, so that the hegemonism of some regional powers began to grow.
Iraq was the most powerful country in the Middle East at that time. At that time, the ruling party was the Arab Baath Socialist Party, and the leader was Saddam Hussein. In the 1980s, Iraq and Iran fought an eight-year war, which was called the Iran-Iraq War in history. This war has caused great losses to both countries, especially the years-long war, which has dragged down the national economy of both countries. Before the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was a rich country (rich in oil to export), but after the Iran-Iraq war, it was heavily in debt. In order to get rid of the debt crisis, Saddam decided to annex Kuwait, another small country at that time.
Kuwait was originally a part of Iraqi territory and became an independent country in the 1970s. Its territory is very small, with a population of only 2 million, and its military strength is very weak. Basically, the army can only be used to maintain social order.
1one night in August 1990, Iraq dispatched a large number of troops and suddenly entered the small country of Kuwait. KLA only made sporadic resistance, and its leaders fled abroad respectively. Iraq announced the annexation of Kuwait to one of its provinces.
Iraq's aggression has been universally condemned by the international community, especially touching the nerves of the United States and western powers. As we all know, the Middle East is an oil-producing region in the world, and more than 50% of the world's oil reserves are in the Middle East. However, the developed industries and huge consumption (mainly automobile consumption) in western countries rely almost entirely on oil imports, especially from the Middle East. It can be said that oil is the lifeline of the west.
The United States soon issued a statement condemning Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, but Saddam did not buy it. In this way, then US President Bush decided to force Iraq to withdraw its troops from Kuwait by military means. A large number of western countries, such as Britain, France and Germany, which have been following the United States in international affairs, naturally stand on the side of Americans because they also rely on importing oil from the Middle East. Some Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are worried that Iraq will point its next aggression target at itself after its invasion of Kuwait, and they also choose to throw themselves into the arms of Americans. In this way, an anti-Iraq alliance was formed.
From the second half of 1990, the United States began to gather troops in the Persian Gulf region and neighboring countries (mainly Saudi Arabia). In order to gain political advantage, the United States also played the card of the United Nations Security Council, which eventually led to the adoption of a resolution on the use of force against Iraq.
199165438+1October 17, the multinational forces led by the United States launched a large-scale air raid on Iraq, codenamed "Desert Storm". The United States used a large number of modern weapons, such as fighter planes and cruise missiles, and saturated bombed the Iraqi army headquarters and command center, especially the Iraqi air defense system. Shortly after the war, Iraq's air defense system was completely paralyzed. Subsequently, the air strikes of multinational forces turned to ground forces, trying to weaken the combat capability of Iraqi ground forces and pave the way for future ground attacks. Subsequently, after more than 20 days of air strikes, the multinational forces launched a ground attack. Soon, Iraq announced that it would accept the UN Security Council resolution and withdraw all its troops from Kuwait. The war ended in the complete victory of the United States and the complete failure of Iraq.
This war is the first attempt of modern information warfare. The United States used a large number of precision-guided bombs, and used Patriot air defense missiles to intercept Scud surface-to-surface missiles launched by the Iraqi army for the first time, creating a precedent for guided anti-missile operations.
2 1999 Yugoslavia War (also known as Kosovo War)
After the end of the world bipolar pattern, the United States implemented the so-called "East Jordan, East Inclusion" strategy for the purpose of establishing global hegemony, in an attempt to pull a large number of Eastern European countries and CIS countries into NATO, thereby expanding the influence of the United States on neighboring countries of Russia and comprehensively compressing Russia's living space. As a result, Poland and other eastern European countries have invested in the United States, but Yugoslavia refused to join NATO and refused the military penetration and economic assistance of the United States. The United States regards Yugoslavia as a stepping stone to NATO's eastward expansion, which must be removed quickly.
Yugoslavia is a multi-ethnic country with Serbia as the main ethnic group, and ethnic problems have a long history. Then the United States used the ethnic problems in Yugoslavia to support the Albanian separatist forces in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia naturally could not tolerate ethnic divisions, so it used its army to exert positive pressure on separatists in its territory. The United States and other western countries openly launched armed aggression against Yugoslavia on the pretext of "protecting human rights".
1On March 24, 1999, the United States rallied some European countries and carried out air strikes against Yugoslavia in the name of NATO. As Yugoslavia rejected the unreasonable demands of the United States and made tenacious resistance, the air raid lasted for 78 days. Air strikes have caused great disasters to Yugoslavia, especially the civilian targets on which citizens in Yugoslavia depend were destroyed by the United States. Later, under the "mediation" of Russia and other big countries, Yugoslavia was forced to accept the conditions of the United States and withdraw its troops from Kosovo. NATO troops and Russia entered Kosovo in the name of United Nations peacekeeping forces, which actually caused Kosovo's de facto independence. Since then, the United States has removed the stumbling block of NATO's eastward expansion, while Russia's prestige in the international community has further declined.
This war is the first modern war since the Second World War to avoid the use of ground troops and achieve the purpose of war only through air strikes.
3 Afghanistan War
Shortly after 2006 54 38+0 9 1 1, the United States launched the war in Afghanistan out of hegemonism. The motives of the United States for the war in Afghanistan are not simple, and anti-terrorism is naturally a requirement on the one hand, but the purpose of Americans is not only to fight terrorism, but to realize their so-called "military presence" in Afghanistan by taking advantage of anti-terrorism, so as to implement the so-called "strategic deterrence" against Russia and China.
The United States began air strikes against Afghanistan on 200 1 1 year1October 7, and cooperated with the anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime that controlled Afghanistan at that time, weakening the strength of Al Qaeda.
4 Iraq War
In 2003, the United States, Britain and other countries launched an all-out armed invasion of Iraq on the grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and supported terrorist activities. On April 9, the United States occupied Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and occupied the whole territory of Iraq on April 14. From June 5438 to February 2003, the United States arrested former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and manipulated the Iraqi High Court to hang him in 2006.
This war is an example of air-ground cooperation. The United States launched the ground halberd a few hours after the air raid, so the combat style is very different from that of the Gulf War.