Europe and the Rest of the World - A Military Analysis

[gaelic cowboy]

But the leadership was not stratified or calcified yet by corrupt leaders, so if the people actually did get some freedom then I suspect this "Report" will be show to be the rubbish I believe it to be

Arab armies used to be meritocratic and now they are not, they defeated far superior cultures and they didnt just do it with some kind of "Me Conan me smash" style war either, now they seem to be merely symbols of oppression.

Exit the dictators and we will see if they are incapable of running a modern army

[Centurion1]

their armies most certainly are meritocratic. and it didnt matter in that time period the individual soldier had no need of initiative. arab armies are still fighting like its 1300.

[Hax]

arab armies are still fighting like its 1300.

Exactly! I've been saying this for years, just like the Polish cavalry charge against tanks in World War II! Because that totally happened.

You want to see a modern army? The Revolutionary Guard of Iran. Strictly not Arab, but Arabicised.
You want to see the fourth largest navy in the world? Turkey. Strictly not Arab, but Arabicised.

So what constitutes Arab culture? I think it's not too far from the truth to say that Morocco, Yemen, and Syria basically share the same basic Arab cultural fundaments, but how about Iran? Or Turkey? Or say Afghanistan? As for your point on Iraq, I don't think it was just superior technology and discipline of the Coalition that led to success in a relatively short time, but also the fact that Iraq had been bombed to hell about ten years earlier.

Try the same thing in Iran, see how that works.


And for me, speaking as a European, and staunchly pro-European, I think the fact that we've learned a very hard lesson sixty years ago, by basically experiencing on our own the pure horror war brings. Strife is natural, personal combat is natural. War not so much. War completely manipulates some basic human emotions and gets people so far as to kill another person outside of self-defence. The fact that we have learned the hard way about what what war means for husbands, fathers and sons, wives, mothers, and daughters, and brothers and sisters is what would make Europe as an entity superior. The fact that we treat war as a very last resort is what's so important. In this day and age we cannot afford to glorify war anymore. It's too risky.

[PanzerJaeger]

Exit the dictators and we will see if they are incapable of running a modern army

I'm not sure that dictatorship or oppressive government can be correlated with poor military performance.

[gaelic cowboy]

I'm not sure that dictatorship or oppressive government can be correlated with poor military performance.

Not all dictators just mainly these ones in particular they seem to be completely venal and clientelist, true it is a trait all dictators have but it's rampant in the ME and it shows.