Re: Arab military effectiveness article was Test

At 4:15 PM +0100 9/11/02, Phillip Atcliffe wrote:
>
>Interesting, but potentially dangerous. I noted the comment about the
>American perception of Japan before WW2, and the other examples given.
>With them in mind, I'd be wary of basing any practical strategies on
>that article, lest the same thing happen again.

Well, I take it that he's essentially warning not to take this as 
faith that you'll walk over an Arab army. The preconceived notions 
can lead you to under-estimate a foe. By the same toke, you can 
overestimate a nation's military power (Gulf War) and benefit by it.

>It's rather ironic: the article begins with a description of why the
>article ought not to be relied on... and it's difficult to know if
>either or both should be believed.

He's really just explaining why people training Arab Military forces 
find the whole process so frustrating. He extrapolates that since 
armies fight as they train, that they'll likely have a harder time of 
fighting against a better trained opponent.

Low level officer initiative is worth its weight in gold. Students of 
WWII know that the biggest problem we had with the Germans was the 
amazing ability for junior officers to organize local counter attacks 
with what ever men were at hand and really FUBAR an Allied thrust 
down a given axis.
-- 
Ryan Gill	       rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
----------------------------------------------------------
      |        |		   |	     -==----
      | O--=-  |		   |	    /_8[*]°_\
      |_/|o|_\_|       | _________ |	    /_[===]_\
      / 00DA61 \       |/---------\|	 __/	     \---
   _w/|=_[__]_= \w_    // [_]  o[]\\   _oO_\	     /_O|_
  |: O(4) ==	O :|  _Oo\=======/_O_  |____\	    /____|
  |---\________/---|  [__O_______W__]	|x||_\	   /_||x|
   |s|\        /|s|   |s|/BSV 575\|s|	|x|-\|	   |/-|x|
   |s|=\______/=|s|   |s|=|_____|=|s|	|x|--|_____|--|x|
   |s|		|s|   |s|	  |s|	|x|	      |x|
'60 Daimler Ferret '42 Daimler Dingo '42 Humber MkIV (1/3)
----------------------------------------------------------