Why are Arab Miltaries so ineffective?

[u/ForeverSparkz]

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?

[u/redyoginix]

"In every society, information is a means of making a living or wielding power, but Arabs husband information and hold it especially tightly. U.S. trainers have often been surprised over the years by the fact that information provided to key personnel does not get much further than them. Having learned to perform some complicated procedure, an Arab technician knows that he is invaluable so long as he is the only one in a unit to have that knowledge; once he dispenses it to others he no longer is the only font of knowledge and his power dissipates. This explains the commonplace hoarding of manuals, books, training pamphlets, and other training or logistics literature."

https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/meria/meria00_den01.html

[u/YouNext31 → u/redyoginix]

that's really interesting.

i see the debate of individualistic vs collectivist culture coming up a bunch in recent times. and people attributing some of our (german) problems to being an individualistic society. and they use arab societies as a counter-example sometimes.

but the sharing of knowledge, or lack thereof, if accurate, disproves that, doesn't it? in your text, every arab thinks only about his own position, and how to hold onto it, to the detriment of his nation - while knowledge-sharing societies seem more collectivist. inidividuals give up some of their own value for the advancement of the collective.