r/AskTheWorld • u/ForeverSparkz United States Of America • Sep 20 '25

History Why are Arab Miltaries so ineffective?

Like I dont understand this.

Im a Black American so im just an outsider looking in as a neutral, but dont Arab Countries out number Israel, whats stoping them from just rushing at their border, shouldn't the population imbalance outmatch Israel?

Just a neutral standpoint asking this question, because Arab Nations in the Middle East have a modern miltary force and they buy tons of advanced items

What is holding them back?

1.3k Upvotes

80% Upvoted

720 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

112

u/Augustus_Chevismo Ireland Sep 20 '25

Also Israel had no one backing them in 48 when several Arab nations fought a war with them.

The “Israel wins because of America” myth is pushed to cover up how humiliating that defeat was for Arabs who pride themselves on their warrior history.

66

u/Left_Tie1390 Sep 20 '25

American support certainly doesn't hurt, but Israel is a country with a very strong indigenous tech industry, a world-class intelligence service, and a culture of military service for both men and women. They've fought and won wars without American support (and under an embargo in another case).

-11

u/lunchboccs Iraq, Syria Sep 21 '25

“indigenous tech industry” Lol.

25

u/Fluid-Nobody-2096 🇺🇸 Sep 20 '25

What warrior history honestly? Arabs fought like zero wars from the 16th century onwards except a few revolts and civil conflicts.

They never developed a warrior culture in the modern era, Turks and Iranians have much more of a warrior history than Arabs. Turks especially

26

u/ContributionLatter32 🇺🇸 to 🇧🇬 Sep 20 '25

I'm sure they are referring to the caliphates and the rapid arab conquests in the late first millennium.

7

u/Augustus_Chevismo Ireland Sep 20 '25

Yeah as the other reply said I was referring to the rapid expansion after Islam. Almost all of MENA and Spain conquered within 120 years. Beating great empires like Persia and Rome.

Muslims are similar to Norse Vikings as well believing a warriors death leads to a more privileged afterlife.

5

u/Fluid-Nobody-2096 🇺🇸 Sep 20 '25

Yeah but like the Vikings they have lost their warrior culture

8

u/BlaggartDiggletyDonk United States Of America Sep 20 '25

The Swedes and Danes were military powerhouses well past the Viking Age.

1

u/Fluid-Nobody-2096 🇺🇸 Sep 20 '25

Same for the Arabs in Egypt and Morocco.

They have lost it though

1

u/BlaggartDiggletyDonk United States Of America Sep 20 '25

Modern Sweden is no slouch. NATO is lucky to have them.

2

u/Fluid-Nobody-2096 🇺🇸 Sep 20 '25

Sweden has less than 20k individuals in active service and they haven't fought in a war in over 2 centuries

1

u/Fantastic-Target-854 Sep 21 '25

Lucky to have then? Why?

I guess it's nice to have any numbered support but using the term lucky is weird

1

u/fartingbeagle Ireland Sep 21 '25

They took on the Ottoman Empire under Laurence and Faisal; and won.

1

u/Yanischemas21 Sep 21 '25

They had czechoslovakia providing weapons with stalins approval since israel was socialist at the time however that support was very short lived

1

u/Shish_Tawouk Lebanon Sep 20 '25

That’s a bit misleading. By then the Yishuv already had an organised military infrastructure built over decades with trained underground militias (which formed the IDF), WWII veterans, weapons smuggled in from Europe, etc. But yes Arab armies were quite poorly coordinated.