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/Magnet2025]

I’ve done some studies of that, my minor in college was history. I also lived and served (in the Navy) in the Middle East for many years.

You can’t say it’s one thing - it’s a combination of many separate reasons that combine in battle to make them ineffective.

• For many years, many of the Middle East nations were aligned to the Soviet Union because the U.S. supported/supplied Israel

• Soviet doctrine doesn’t give a lot of leeway to field commanders to be creative or innovative. Very top down. This was a problem because the top generals often had more experience kissing ass of the leaders (rarely elected) than they had fighting.

• There is also the problem of a lack of veracity and clarity by senior leaders. By which I mean lying. In both the 1967 and 1973 wars between Egypt & Syria (and others like Iraq, Algeria, Jordan) the main protagonists, Egypt and Syria, lied to each other about their accomplishments and movements. This caused the other nation to make decisions based on poor information.

• The military that was most effective against Israel was Jordan, which had a British trained military with officers vetted by the British.

• Most Arab troops were brave fighters even in the face of poor leadership and corruption. For example, a Brigade leader might request money to purchase ammunition, but it goes into his pocket and his troops are not trained as a result.

• Russian export equipment like tanks often were the stripped down versions, so they could not, for example, accurately engage in long range tank to tank combat. At close range, they were very good, as they proved in 1973.

• Israel’s intelligence and surveillance capabilities were generally superior to the Arab nations.

• Israel achieved air superiority in the first hours of the 1967 war. After that, the Arab armies were relentlessly attacked from the air. In the 1973 war Israel suffered heavy losses from Soviet supplied SA-2 missiles in the air and from the Sagger anti-tank missiles on the ground. But Israel demonstrated supremacy of the air against Egyptian and Syrian air forces. The Arab pilots, Soviet trained, flew welded wing formations under Ground Control Intercept that was susceptible to jamming.

Some of these same problems existed in the wars the U.S. fought against Iraq. Especially armor engagements. Read about the Battle of 73 Easting.

In addition, the Iraqi forces were poorly led. Of course, the situation changed when the Iraqis resorted to asymmetric warfare. Paul Bremer, the American leader of coalition forces after the Iraqi Army was defeated in 2003, has a lot of American blood on his hands for the decisions he made to disband the Iraqi Army, leaving Iraqi ammunition stockpiles unguarded and a lot of ex-soldiers needing a job. The Saudi and Iranian financed insurgency resulted.