Even in Arabic countries with lots of cash their militaries are not really judged as being all that effective vs the militarizes of more industrialized nations. Why?
If they got the cash they should be able to buy the hardware they need and train people as required. What’s missing?
Countries with great militaries are countries that NEED great militaries. How often do Saudi Arabia and Dubai and those guys ever actually need to fight anyone? Not very often.
Money cannot buy a great military. The only thing that will make a military great, is practice.
Ask Israel.
The will?
Maintaining an effective military is expensive, and unless you have an immediate reason to think you might need one, there really is no good reason for a small country to bother.
In a lot of Arabic countries, the military is almost a public assistance program: recruits are given a salary with little really expected of them. One reason might be that for many of the autocratic regimes, the creation of a professional military could be seen as a threat to the ruling elites (e.g. Sadat).
Are they? And by whom?
MY statement was a general impression I’ve gotten from Arabic military performance vs Israel and the general poor regard Arabic speaking Armies are held in.
I found this article which also seems to answer some of the questions in my OP.
Israel was a cornered animal. You don’t fuck with a cornered animal, i.e. something that is fighting for its very survival.
That article was briefly discussed in this old thread. Which, I might note, you participated in :).
Look away. Alzheimers isn’t pretty.
This isn’t the standpoint of most small countries, especially since small countries are the ones usually invaded - like Georgia.
Or, as Frank Sinatra cogently put it: “Never fight a Jew in the desert.”
Mostly because their NCO corps sucks. In a lot of developing countries, even non-Arab ones like India, the NCOs are treated like privates who happen to have been in a little longer.
Hmmm. The last war with Israel took place more than 30 years ago. You can’t indefinitely assess the value of something or someone on the basis of its performance in a more and more distant past.
Plus, there has been much talk recently about Tsahal not being anymore what it used to be.
Anthony Cordesman semi-regularly analyzes and updates the capabilities of the various Middle East militaries ( among others ).
Thanks.