I think what the author misses is that the primary goal of an Arab army is the same as the goal of any army beholden to a king - to keep the king in power. All other goals, including victory over a foreign enemy, are secondary to this. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Battlefield victories are wonderful, but not at the cost of losing power.
So Egyptian and Syrian leaders hedged their bets by appointing only generals who were reliable. Note that Sadat lost power only when he was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Hafez Assad stayed in power until he died, in bed. Even Gaddafi, who lost the Toyota War, could only be ousted with the help of American airstrikes. And all three ruled far longer than any American president, post-22nd Amendment.
The difference between non-Arab and Arab armies comes down to one thing - we are drones, and they are not. Every Arab commander views himself as a potential king. Non-Arab soldiers just view themselves as cogs in a machine.
For later
Re: Furthermore, scholars across disciplines have an “undeniable consensus that Arab society, as it developed over the centuries, came to see manual labor as dishonorable....”
Just days ago I read that the oil rich Persian Gulf nation of Qatar has more foreign workers than its native born population!
"Egyptian F-4...squadrons quickly became nonoperational in the 1980s after cancellation of American maintenance contracts."
Having been in the science of aircraft fleet maintenance most of my life, the weapons system maintenance deficiencies of Arabs has been baffling. I always assumed it was cultural in nature, now this book elucidates that.
Can't wait to read it.
“The vast majority went into battle with only grenades,” he writes, yet Chinese military performance “was first class in every category.”
Chinese dead and wounded totaled almost a million men. That’s hardly “first class”
L
I would be careful with this line of thinking. The 2006 Lebanon War was not the walkover that previous conflicts were.
Every military disaster starts with over-confidence.
After the ground war we spent most of our time clearing mines and unexploded ordnance. The Saudis were blowing themselves up despite numerous training sessions. A US educated officer came to us and said "Tell them Israel uses the 2.2kg Soviet anti-tank mine." (They don't). Suddenly, they were all paying attention and taking notes.
Fascinating. This is totally contra Thomas Wictor and his “superhuman” Saudi elite troops theory.
Also this jibes with what I found in my own research in “America’s Victories: How the US Wins Wars,” first published in 2006, but it sounds like the author leaves out a lot of the “shame/honor” cultural weaknesses (as you mention).
Actually I think all tribal based societies and cultures are like this. Look at Africa! I bet the same assessment can be made.
I was a US Army infantry officer in the 80's and 90's. The observations in the article dovetail with my experience being around Arab officers. The Pakistani's were the smartest and most competent, followed by the Egyptians. The worst by far were the Saudi officers, who seemed to disdain having to do any work whatsoever.
Saudi Arabia is the paper tiger of the middle east. They only exist because the US government is their ally. They have spent trillions of dollars on military equipment, but in my opinion, couldn't even perform company level combat operations. The M1A2 tanks that Saudi Arabia possesses are likely just left in the motorpool and not maintained, except by people of non Saudi nationality.
My father and brother lived in Saudi Arabia during the 70's. They also told me Saudi's disdain manual labor, and think nothing of not paying you after you have done work for them. My dad told me the Saudis really dislike the Yemenis and view them as akin to slaves. Also, they bring in poor Philippino girls as maids and treat them terribly.
I would like to point out that Egyptians are not Arab, but a completely different ethnic group. Neither are Libyans-they are Berbers.
The real million dollar question is how competent are the Iranians militarily? Of course they are not Arabs-they are Persians, but I would love to find out just how capable they are. They are the most destabilizing force in the Middle East.
Sounds like a good read.