Volume 1: The Fierce Tiger Leaves Its Leash Chapter 27: Before the Rain Comes (Part 1)

  Seeing the two words "top secret" on the document, Huang Longfei hesitated for a moment before turning to the first page. Perhaps he still had a hint of curiosity before, but when he saw the specific content of the document, Huang Longfei also showed a look of surprise.

  "Do you know why America launched the Afghan War?" Zhou Guohui started interpreting beside him.

  Huang Longfei glanced at Big Brother and then returned his gaze to the file. At this time, he was more suitable as a listener rather than a speaker.

  "On the surface, the Afghan War is part of America's 'War on Terror', but in reality, the Afghan War has a lot of differences with the Iraq War." Zhou Guohui didn't care about how much Huang Longfei understood about international situations. "Firstly, Afghanistan is a country that is very difficult to conquer, since the Mongols, no country has ever truly conquered Afghanistan. The Soviet army used tens of thousands of troops and spent ten years, but ultimately retreated in defeat. Secondly, Afghanistan is a poor mountainous country, not only does it lack rich oil resources, even agricultural resources are scarce, America cannot possibly occupy Afghanistan for its resources like they did with Iraq."

  This is still clear to Huang Longfei. There's a saying: Afghanistan is the place closest to the sky and farthest from heaven. A landlocked, impoverished mountainous country is like a poor man's home - not only can't it attract robbers, but even thieves don't bother to visit.

  "But why did the US still deploy a large army of 100,000 troops, together with other allied countries, to occupy Afghanistan?" Zhou Guohui didn't ask the question, he himself provided the answer. "Because Afghanistan's geographical location has a very important strategic position. Its northern Central Asian region is Russia's backyard, and its eastern part borders our country. Now, most people believe that the Caspian Sea region's oil reserves may reach about 60% of those in the Middle East, making it the world's second-largest oil-producing area. And we recently signed an agreement with Kazakhstan to build a pipeline from Atyrau to Urumqi. In addition, over the past few years, the SCO's cooperation scope has been gradually expanding, and Central Asia has become an important strategic convergence point for our country and Russia. As the throat of this convergence point, the US's intention in sending troops to Afghanistan is quite obvious."

  Huang Longfei nodded slightly, but his eyes remained on the document in his hand. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a regional cooperation organization led by China and Russia, with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan participating. The purpose of the organization is to promote regional trade through regional cooperation and drive regional economic development. However, in reality, the SCO is largely a non-aligned multilateral alliance that not only promotes mutual economic benefits but also has deep military cooperation and exchanges, especially after the first joint military exercise was held two years ago, the SCO's scope of cooperation has already extended to the military field.

  "It can be said that from the very beginning, the US sending troops to Afghanistan was a premeditated conspiracy. Do you still remember the 'intelligence gate' incident?"

  Huang Longfei raised his head. "You're talking about 'Iraqgate'?"

  "Yes, the 'Iraq Intelligence Gate' is not an isolated incident, but rather a part of the US intelligence agency scandal. As far as we know now, the US has still not found any large-scale lethal weapons in Iraq, nor even warehouses for storing such weapons." Zhou Guohui said while lighting up a cigarette, "Even before 911, the US intelligence department had already issued warnings, but they were intentionally ignored."

  "America needs a reason." Huang Longfei sighed and his eyes returned to the file.

  "So the US military continues to stay in Afghanistan, and it also needs a reason." Zhou Guohui continued to say, "Look at our country's surroundings, the US has deployed aircraft carriers to Guam, maintaining two carrier battle groups in the western Pacific for a long time. The US is also strengthening its cooperation with India, and may even give India the retired 'Little Eagle'..."

  "This is just boasting, the US will not give an aircraft carrier to India." Huang Longfei immediately raised his head, "Even if the US is willing to give it away, India would not dare to accept it easily, because India does not need such a large aircraft carrier and cannot afford one either."

  "This aside, one thing is certain: the US is making a concerted effort to improve its relationship with India. And now, with 100,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan, the US has erected a barrier on three sides of us, tying our hands and feet. Now you should know why the US military won't leave Afghanistan."

  Huang Longfei sneered, nominally "anti-terrorism", but in fact it was besieging the Republic and threatening Russia's backyard. This superficial truth is obvious to everyone.

  "So the US needs a reason to stay in Afghanistan."

  "Now that the resistance organization in Afghanistan has not been completely eliminated, the US military naturally has a reason to stay."

  Zhou Guohui glanced at the document in Huang Longfei's hand and said, "This is the key. In the past, the Afghan resistance organization persisted for ten years under the siege of the Soviet army and continued to grow stronger, eventually forcing the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops. But can the Afghan resistance organization persist for five years under the heavy pressure of the US military?"

  Huang Longfei slightly furrowed his brow, this point he was a bit unclear about, after all when the Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan, he was only in his early teens, and didn't have a good understanding of the international situation at the time.

  "When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, it was opposed by almost the entire world. The Afghan resistance organization was able to persist for ten years and even expand, an important reason being that Western countries like the United States secretly supported them, providing large amounts of military aid, including tens of thousands of guns, hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition, and thousands of 'Stinger' missiles. Without this support, it's likely that the Afghan resistance organization would have found it difficult to persist, at least not under the heavy pressure from the Soviet army. But now, can the Afghan resistance organization obtain external assistance?"

  Huang Longfei immediately raised his head, and Zhou Guohui's words hit the nail on the head. Under the banner of "anti-terrorism war", almost all countries are supporting the United States, at least maintaining neutrality. Even Iran, a country that has been hostile to the United States for more than 30 years, has drawn a clear line with terrorist organizations on the surface. Then which country dares to provide military assistance to the Afghan resistance organization?