Arabs Can't Fight

While we in America and the west commemorate the D-Day landings Israeli is commemorating its victory over Syria, Jordan and Egypt in the Six Day War  of 1967. An improbable victory that made the Jews undisputed masters of the region.

The title of this post is basically the thesis in an 8,000 word magnum opus of mine recently published in Counterfact Magazine. The piece was ostensibly about the Arab-Israeli Wars but the more I wrote the more I saw the main feature of the conflict was the Arabs' inability to defeat the Israelis.

Arab armies were larger and better equipped than the Israelis. Remember, Israel was not yet really a client state of ours as she is now. So why did the Arabs lose, again and again? I never really did answer the question.

We can state a few facts, though.

First, Arab societies were and are completely dysfunctional divided by tribe, class and religion.

Second, they're dictatorships. In his environment its hard for great generals to emerge, they're a threat to the regime.

Third, tactics. The Arabs were using Soviet blunt force tactics. These never work against a competent enemy.

Arabs are also delusional. Go ahead, ask an Egyptian who won the the Yom Kippur War. Go ahead, I'll wait. When a society can convince itself it won a war in clearly lost, or lost a war because of grand Zionist conspiracies, it can't learn and adapt from its military mistakes.

So a state of six million (whoops, there's that number again) Jews thrives on the banks of the Med, inventing new technologies and thinking of new and interesting ways to kill terrorists.

Egypt on the other hand just hand another military coup and Syria is tearing itself apart.

Hmmm, maybe we do know why Arabs can't fight.