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Fang Mingyuan was stunned by this thought of his own. But when you think about it, it's all possible. Only in this way can it be shown that before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the reaction of the Americans would be so strange, and the attitude of the Americans after the invasion was completely different and worlds apart!

Fang Mingyuan remembers very well that on the first day of the Iraqi army's invasion of Kuwait, US President George W. Bush delivered a speech facing the whole nation, sternly condemning Iraq's invasion of Kuwait as a naked aggression, a challenge to the international order since the end of the Cold War, and a real threat to US national interests, and announcing the freezing of all US assets of Iraq and Kuwait. At the same time, the United States Government responded militarily strongly, with two aircraft carrier battle groups ordered to sail to the Gulf region less than an hour after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. And extremely harshly demanded that Iraq withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait!

On 3 August, the United States and the Soviet Union reached a consensus, and the Soviet Union changed its normal stance of holding an antagonistic stance with the United States on the Shijie regional conflict since the Cold War, and jointly issued a "Joint Statement," demanding that Iraq must immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Kuwait and fully restore Kuwait's sovereignty, legitimate political power, and territorial integrity. On the same day, the Soviet government stopped arms supplies and military aid to Iraq.

It was precisely because the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on their basic stance on the Gulf crisis, and that the vast majority of other countries or international organizations responded swiftly to Iraq's invasion and generally strongly resisted and condemned Iraq's aggression. The UN Security Council and its member states have responded to the Gulf crisis with unprecedented rapidity and almost complete unison. As a result, the United Nations Security Council was able to smoothly adopt a series of resolutions to sanction Iraq. Although the Soviet Union did not directly send troops to participate in the war against Iraq, its attitude of support for the United States in organizing a multinational force to send troops to the Gulf enabled the United States to take various military actions without any scruples.

And on August 7, the first batch of US troops had already set foot on Saudi Arabian soil. From the decision to send troops to the time when the soldiers set foot on the land of the Arabian Peninsula, it took less than five days.

The U.S. Secretary of State later went to great lengths to organize a coalition of 34 countries that had jointly sent troops to fight back against Iraq, but in fact many of these coalition countries were unwilling to participate in the military operation. Some see the war as an intra-Arab war, while others fear that the United States will further strengthen its influence in Kuwait and thus dominate the Gulf region. There are many countries that have reluctantly agreed to participate under preferential conditions such as economic aid and debt forgiveness from the United States.

After expelling Iraq from Kuwait, the US military has been stationing a large number of troops in Arab countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, on the one hand, to prevent Iraq from doing anything against other countries again, and on the other hand, to make the Middle East region its Shili sphere.

You must know that since the 70s of the 20 th century, due to the widespread nationalization of oil companies in Middle Eastern countries, Western countries led by the United States have basically lost the initiative to control the supply of Shijie oil. We can only rely on the International Energy Organization and Energy Conservation Jishu to passively respond to the volatility of the Shijie oil market and counter the quota production mechanism of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). But the Gulf War brought the United States back to the Persian Gulf, and 2,000 years later, it took control of Iraq, the country with the second largest oil reserves. Since then, the United States has seized the right to extract and price Iraq's oil, and it will also control the oil supply of the entire Gulf region, and even the oil policy of OPEC members will have an important deterrent effect.

This role couldn't help but remind Fang Mingyuan of the term "oil crisis"!

The oil crisis refers to the repeated actions of Arab countries to achieve their political goals by limiting oil production, raising prices, and embargoing oil. The Fourth Middle East War, which began in the 70s, when 12 Arab countries, including Egypt and Syria, waged war against Israel. At this time, several major Arab oil producers announced that they would raise the price of oil in the Gulf region. This decision marked the official start of the oil war waged by the Arab Shijie against Israel and its supporters, and the outbreak of the first oil crisis that shook Shijie.

In the next few days, the oil-producing countries in the Arab countries announced one after another that they would withdraw the shares owned by their own oil companies, the European and American national oil companies, and the crude oil production of various countries was reduced one after another, and the supply to Western countries led by the United States was reduced. Later, it completely stopped oil exports to the United States and announced that it would withdraw the right to price crude oil. As a result, in just three months, the price of Shijie oil has nearly tripled. Thus triggering the worst global economic crisis since the Second Shijie War. The three-year oil crisis had a severe impact on the economies of developed countries and had a series of far-reaching effects on the Shijie economy since then.

According to relevant records, the oil weapons of the Arab countries dealt a heavy blow to the Shijie economy, which was heavily dependent on oil at that time. The United States, which bears the brunt of the loss, has lost millions of barrels of oil every day, and severe energy shortages have forced a large number of factories in the United States to shut down. The U.S. government also had to declare a "state of emergency" and take a series of tight measures to save oil and electricity, including reducing the number of domestic flights, limiting the speed of vehicles, rationing the country's heating oil, closing gas stations across the country on Sundays, banning and restricting outdoor lighting advertising, and even the electric lights on the roof of the White House and around the United Nations building were ordered to be turned off for a limited time.

In order to save oil, President Nixon also ordered a reduction in the normal speed of presidential plane flights and eliminated the escort planes he was supposed to have on weekend trips. The U.S. Congress urgently passed a bill authorizing the president to implement a national ration of all petroleum products.

In this oil crisis, almost half of the normal oil supply of the US Department of Defense was disrupted, and the US military presence in Europe and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean had to use their wartime oil reserves.

During this crisis, industrial production in both the United States and Japan declined markedly, and economic growth slowed markedly in all industrialized countries. However, there has been a marked increase in the economic income of the Arab countries.

The second oil crisis occurred in the late 70s, when the political situation in Iran changed dramatically, the pro-American king went into exile, the religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power, and the Iran-Iraq war broke out, which triggered the oil crisis. This state of affairs lasted for more than half a year and became a major reason for the full-scale recession of the Western economy at the end of the 70s of the last century.

It can be said that the two oil crises have caused serious losses to the economic development of European and American countries. The third oil crisis was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

However, since the United States stationed in the Persian Gulf, although the price of shijie oil is still fluctuating, and after 2,000 years, it has climbed to a historical high of more than 140 US dollars per barrel.

The more Fang Mingyuan thought about it, the more he felt that the whole thing was like a trap set by the United States in the Middle East! Why didn't he think about the connection earlier, otherwise, maybe ......

"Hey, hey, Mingyuan, are you still there?" couldn't hear Fang Mingyuan speak for a long time, and Su Huandong on the phone said strangely.

"Grandpa Su, I'm listening. Fang Mingyuan, who came to his senses, had a trace of inconspicuous trilling in his voice, and Su Huandong, who was also in an excited mood, did not notice it.

"Mingyuan, do you mean that the United States will send troops to the Persian Gulf to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait?" Su Huandong said with some unconfidence, "But can the Soviet Union agree? Iraq is his close ally in the Middle East, so the Americans are not afraid of the expansion of the war?" Iraq can be said to be an ally of the Soviet Union in the Middle East for many years, and the Iraqi army is basically armed with Soviet-style equipment. For decades since the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union have been at loggerheads in all corners of the country, and there would be an exception here in the Persian Gulf?

"Grandpa Su, if it is the era when Khrushchev was in power in the Soviet Union, I dare to say that the Americans did not dare, because that would most likely lead to a nuclear war. But now that Gorbachev is in power, the Soviet Union, who is pushing for reforms and new thinking, is actively moving towards the West, and the Soviet Union has given up its political, military, and diplomatic position against the United States. Moreover, I personally believe that Iraq's invasion of Kuwait will arouse universal condemnation among all the countries, and the Soviet Union will not risk the condemnation of the world to make enemies of the United States and all other countries!" Fang Mingyuan said with great certainty. Su Huandong on the phone fell into a long silence.

"Mingyuan, the day after tomorrow, Kuwait's diplomatic envoy and cabinet of oil ministers, Ahmad Salim al-Sabah, will visit our country to discuss the situation in the Gulf with our prime minister, what do you think about this?" Although he knew that Fang Mingyuan was only a junior high school student, Su Huandong seemed to have forgotten this at this time.

Fang Mingyuan pondered for a moment, and then said solemnly: "Grandpa Su, of course we have to stand on the side of the winner." Kuwait is bound to rebuild after the war, and I think you know very well the business opportunities involved. If possible, do our best to show goodwill to Kuwait! In the future, we need Kuwaiti oil. ”