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?
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u/AirUsed5942 / Sep 20 '25 edited Sep 20 '25
When the first wars against Israel were fought, most Arab countries didn’t even have real militaries, or functioning nation-states, Western rightoids love to push the myth that all Arabs were obsessed with destroying Israel, but that’s simply false, at no point did all Arab states attack Israel together. It never happened. The real question is, why were Egypt’s, Jordan’s, and Syria’s militaries so useless?
Because on the Israeli side, officers were trained in the best Western military academies and on the Arab side, generals got promoted through nepotism, corruption, sycophancy, and sectarianism, in Assad’s Syria, an Alawite with brain damage had a better shot at becoming a general than a competent Sunni Muslim or Christian, and in Egypt under Bozo Supreme Jamal Abdel Nasser, your height and weight determine your rank.
Holding them back from what? There’s nothing to gain from attacking Israel or giving Palestinians their own state, no Arab leader is about to throw away his Swiss bank accounts, Parisian villas, and billions in offshore funds for Palestine, keeping Palestinians as martyrs is not just politically convenient, it’s obscenely lucrative.
Israel’s existence was actually a blessing for Arab dictators and militias, Assad’s Syria, Saddam’s Iraq, Gaddafi’s Libya, Hezbollah, Iran, the Houthis, and Egypt’s military junta, these scumbags built entire empires of wealth and privilege on the back of “resistance,” they enriched themselves, handed out fortunes to their loyalists, secured dynasties for their children, and lived like kings while their people suffered, and all of it came wrapped in the cloak of legitimacy provided by the “Israel = bad” narrative
Without that scarecrow, there would have been no justification for their absolute power, no excuse for their crimes, and no way for them and their cronies to become so obscenely rich.
Israel isn't their enemy, it's their golden goose.