1 Sadly, Annika's Journal will soon cease to be the place where I can find such classics. Sigh. Hopefully, Miss Annika will post stuff like this at the Buffet...

2 A former instructor of mine who had worked with the Saudis (and I think the Kuwaitis, too) opined that to most Arab militaries, simple squad tactics are special operations. That was fifteen years ago. I see that little has changed.

3 Why do you think that is? Wouldn't you think that with some training they'd improve?

4 I think at least part of the problem is cultural. See "Why Arabs Lose Wars," by Col. Norvell B. De Atkine. One thing De Atkine doesn't mention specifically is the deep Arab concern for face-saving. Artillery officers I've known who worked with Arab militaries have told me that a simple call for fire -- which should be about a sixty second evolution, start to finish (as long a comms are clear) -- can take ten times that long for Arabs. All the relevant cats and dogs have to politely confer about the exact target location, the proper shell/fuze combination to call for, the number of volleys to request, the type of sheaf, etc. By agreeing on everything in advance, they ensure that no one gets embarrassed by being abruptly overruled later. But guess what: in ten minutes the target has moved, and/or you've been overrun. You can't win wars that way.