Johnathon Mackin
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ARAB AND ISRAELI MILITARIES
As someone who has directly trained with IDF and Arab militaries. On the most basic level of training the IDF will outstrip any Arab military. For example, on the individual zeroing weapons was a trial. These Arabs did not believe it was useful and neither did the commanders. Some of the Arab country soldiers thought that basic geometry was like magic. Yes, one millimeter movement of your sight is really one meter at one thousand meters. It works. Does anyone believe I had to make any IDF soldier believe that? This is just an example and indicative of the problems I would encounter in Arab countries on the individual level. Yes, your Arab soldiers need water and food. Believe it or not I had to tell Arab commanders these things. I believe it was systemic because almost everyone I encountered had this attitude. At the company and battalion level the leadership was just lacking. Follow through with even any basic job just was not there. When conducting combat operations, planning was unrealistic, not timely, or just plain bad. We normally just utilized my plan. A lot of the Arab soldiers’ leadership did not and would not lead their soldiers in combat during major operations. They would either want to utilize the radio from base or take annual leave. I wrote this part in another post but it is relevant. When we were setting up basic combat training for the Jundi in Habbiniya, the Iraqi Army had virtually a blank check to train the Jundi how they wanted. Unlimited funds really. I said, “You can train them like the United States Marine Corps, Army, French Foreign Legion, Royal Marines,” I showed them videos of entire boot camps and basic training, the follow-on training they received. “Nope, we’re going to train in the dirt and not utilize any technology or experience from modern militaries. Because that training worked against the Americans.”
By Johnathon Mackin3 years ago in Serve