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I think the author is describing a symptoms of an ill organization structure rather than the root causes. The reason why there is no trust, sharing of informati

I think the author is describing a symptoms of an ill organization structure rather than the root causes. The reason why there is no trust, sharing of information and centralized authority in modern Arab state armies because Arab societies never really transitioned successfully into a functional nationalistic countries. Arabs never really believed in nation state and in the absence of strong bonding narrative, there is no common ground for the group to collaborate and fight thus you end up with individuals seeking their self interest and subsequently the symptoms which the author observed. Modern nation state concepts were forced into a region that is predominantly tribal and religious in culture therefore the resulted states, governments, armies and other national institutions are merely a superficial layer on top of a largely religious, ethinic and tribal societies. The west had a long and painful (400 years plus and two major wars) transition from societies dominated by religion to a national secular societies and eventually a capitalistic global societies. That transition never really took place in the Arab region, instead what happened is that western society tried to force national borders and proxy presidents after the world wars on societies that didn’t have the cultural foundation for it and the region has not really managed to reconcile, unify and agree on it’s identity ever since. So why do arabs lose war? Because really there is no state or reason to fight for it. This was very clear in Iraq when fighting ISIS, the men of the country only mobilized after a religious greenlight from a senior clerk despite the fact that ISIS were at the border of the country's capital.

baud147258 7y ago
> 400 years plus and two major wars More like a dozen of major war. But what you are describing is close to the idea of nation-state, which has been blamed as the cause of the war of the XXth century.
- aogaili 7y ago
  Yeah indeed it cauased a new set of global conflicts, but it also allowed western societies to raise above the tribal, relgious and ethinic devisions (for better or worst) something I'd argue no Arab nation managed to do so successfully. In fact it seems that western societies are currently undergrowing new trasnision beyond the nation and local bordres, which could be why they're having new make x great again movements and raise of local populist.
- aogaili 7y ago
  > More like a dozen of major war. That could also be another reason why western armies are better organized, they simply have more experience waging nation wide global wars.

baud147258 7y ago

> 400 years plus and two major wars More like a dozen of major war. But what you are describing is close to the idea of nation-state, which has been blamed as the cause of the war of the XXth century.

aogaili 7y ago
Yeah indeed it cauased a new set of global conflicts, but it also allowed western societies to raise above the tribal, relgious and ethinic devisions (for better or worst) something I'd argue no Arab nation managed to do so successfully. In fact it seems that western societies are currently undergrowing new trasnision beyond the nation and local bordres, which could be why they're having new make x great again movements and raise of local populist.
aogaili 7y ago
> More like a dozen of major war. That could also be another reason why western armies are better organized, they simply have more experience waging nation wide global wars.