Four years ago, long before we had any idea that a bunch of fanatics would make mine Mistel using Boeing airliners, Colonel Norvell De Atkine, U.S. Army (ret.) wrote a piece entitled "Why Arabs Lose Wars" for the Middle East Quarterly, a publication of the Middle East Forum.

There's no way I could possibly summarize this tightly-written and very interesting piece, so I'll cheat and reproduce the section headers:

False Starts

The Role of Culture

Information as Power

Education Problems

Officers vs. Soldiers

Decision-making and Responsibility

Combined Arms and Operations

Security and Paranoia

Indifference to Safety

This has both historical and contemporary value in understanding the nature of formal state forces that American forces may find themselves in conflict with in the near future. Some of it's downright creepy or weird, and other parts will leave you chuckling at the stupidity or incompetence of these guys, and will go a long way towards explaining why the Israelis always win. (Note: This does not reject the premise that they're the Chosen People who have a deal with the Man Upstairs. It probably confirms that premise, because it is utmost providence that the numerically superior Arab powers are so fundamentally stupid when it comes to making war.)

Read it, and enjoy.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to baldilocks, from whose sidebar I found this.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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