I can't find the piece I'm looking for in the archives, about the incompetence of Middle Eastern armies. But here's a start:

The clash of civilizations between Islam and the West indeed exists in the weak, ordinary sense of clash, but not in the strong and more dramatic meaning of the term. Islam is simply too weak to sustain in earnest any challenge to an obviously triumphant West. In fact, contemporary Islam does not even form a “civilization” in the active, enactive, and effective senses of the term. It may be said to form a civilization only in the historical, traditional, passive, reactive, and folkloric senses.

The two supposedly clashing sides are so unequal in power, military might, productive capacity, efficiency, effective institutions, wealth, social organization, science, and technology that the clash can only be of the inconsequential sort. As one literary metaphor says, If a stone falls on an egg the egg breaks, and if an egg falls on a stone the egg breaks too. From the Arab Muslim side of the divide, the West seems so powerful, so efficient, so successful, so unstoppable, that the very idea of an ultimate “clash” is fanciful.

Aha! Here it is. You're welcome.

Just so long as they remain incompetent.

The Six Day War? even had the Arab armies had their shit together, they'd have found it hard going over open terrain with no air cover to speak of, as the IAF had effectively knocked the air forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria within the first 48 hours.

Now, the 1973 war was very near thing.

> Just so long as they remain incompetent.

I dunno... It's a chicken and egg thing. Every culture with productivity and education and opportunity for all its members has better things to do than hate Israel.

If history teaches us anything, it is that no power based status quo lasts forever.

The foreseeable future is a laughable term, because no one anywhere can see their life beyond the next minute, let alone the movement of nations.

The west cripples itself with its open borders and pandering to immigrants who demand change, or slowly are bringing it about by simple weight of numbers.

Western europe may very well end up willing itself out of existance.

As far as North & South America, I won't even hazard a guess. Islam has sustained itself very well over the last millenia, and it would not be surprising for me to see it grow in appeal to American men fed up with the subbordination demanded by feminism. It may be one of the supreme ironies of history that feminism will similarly will itself out of existance by its willingness to condemn its protectors in the name of "liberation" and welcome its conquerors in the name of "peace".

But as I said, the future is a murky sort of thing. I don't respect Islam for anything except its remarkable staying power. I wonder what the next thousand years will bring? That is my one regret about our limited life spans, I won't be alive to see.

Re 1967, see also.

> The west cripples itself with its open borders

No.

> every spare drop of money he earns goes
> back to his father

I saw this is a lot of 3rd world dive destinations, too. Nobody can accumulate enough assets to expand an enterprise, because there's always a cousin with his hand out.

See P.J..

You can say the same thing about any other problem on planet Earth. If this person/group of people could just get his/her/their act together and change this behavior this problem would be history.

As I type my youngest Jewish nephew is once again showing off his list of boo boos. Every scratch, abrasion, and bruise is highlighted and story told on how it came to be. I hope his two older brothers have prepared their defenses. I suspect once adults the youngest will be seeking monetary compensation. Only one more days of sitting, and then this worn out referee uncle gets a rest.

I suspect that Israeli society is different in a key way to Arab culture concerning the military. In the west, British islands in particular, a strong society is believed in. My understanding is that this is attributed to the small nuclear family found in the west. Everything can not be found within the family. So it is important to seek help from outsiders. And because of that strong institutions and laws are desired.

In the Arab world, culture centers around the clan. A strong society and government are not needed. Most everything can be found within the clan, even going so far as up to 50% of marriages are between 1st cousins in some Islamic countries - like Pakistan.

Israel, being a country that follows western ways, with many immigrants, is I'm guessing not clannish. And I'm guessing believes in a strong society also. This creates a sense of unity and that can be found in the military.

In the Arab world clan beliefs take first place over government and military desires. An Arab military is for parades not fighting.

Anyway, bit of a worn out ramble, but my thoughts on part of the reason why Israel has been successful in her past battles against neighboring countries.

I don't know if it's actual or apocryphal, but this is my favorite Moshe Dayan quote:

"General Dayan, do you agree that the Israeli Army is one of the best in the world?"

"Oh, I'm not sure about that. We've only ever fought Arabs"

God, Martin, that is WONDERFUL.

No.~Crid

Yes.

How do you think we ended up with Texas?

I don't get the question. Texas is an ASSET... I love those people.

In the Six-Day War, the Syrian Army was the most poorly trained followed by the Egyptian Army despite all the equipment supplied by the Soviets. The Jordanian Army, on the other hand, were much better trained fighters and made the Israeli soldiers earn their paycheck in the West Bank. Israel's biggest advantage was their airforce which ruled the skies. In the Yom Kippur 1973 war, on the other hand, the SAMs that the Soviets generously supplied Egypt and Syria negated much of the advantage the Israelis had in the air, and Israel came close to possibly using nukes to stop the Egyptians from breaking through their lines and racing across the Sinai had they not managed to breakthrough first and encircle the Egyptian army that had crossed the Suez canal. Had King Hussein of Jordan decided to join that war, the Israelis would have come even closer to pulling the trigger in order to survive.

You're right Crid, Texas IS an asset. Great state. Used to live there as a kid.

But it used to belong to MEXICO. How did we end up with it? It started when large numbers of Americans moving onto Mexican land, which admittedly was not heavily populated, and gradually growing to outnumber the local population. They decided they didn't much like being subject to Mexican law, prefering by far the laws of the America they had migrated from. (To be fair, some of their reasons for not liking Mexican law were better than others. The laws against slave holding amongst them...but also the political instability of the country of Mexico, as well as its tyrannical ways in matters of law. If that isn't irony, I don't know what is)

One rebellion later and Texas was an independent country (which is why the state flag of Texas can be flown at the same height as the American flag) and not to long after that, they joined the Union.

It started with open borders, and ended with the loss of a huge chunk of the country, which very easily could have been the whole thing.

The same thing is happening to Europe right now with rampant immigration, lack of assimilation, and a declining national population to sustain the existing free culture.

If "I" were in charge of Israel, I'd be keeping a nice big fat stockpile of nukes to keep my neighbors at bay.

> It started when large numbers of Americans moving
> onto Mexican land

Who you calling 'Americans'? There used to be this joke, "Whadya mean we're surrounded, Paleface?"

I thought Texas was full of Irish people.

As full of it as the rest of the South at the time, including a few of my own ancestors.

" It started when large numbers of Americans moving onto Mexican land, which admittedly was not heavily populated, and gradually growing to outnumber the local population"

What happened with Texas is a rarity. Anyways aint the reverse what conservatives are so afraid of. Look in the Americas (all of them) we have this tradition where you assimilate into whatever country you're in wherever you're from. The problem Europe has is entirely different from our own.