At the beginning of the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Iraq had the world’s fourth-largest army (a good portion of whom had prior combat experience) and large quantities of Soviet-made weaponry. However, once the ground war kicked off, the US-led multinational coalition rolled up Iraq’s forces in 100 hours, sustaining minimal casualties.

Arab armies have encountered defeat after defeat not only at the hands of Israel, but also at the hands of poorly armed African insurgents (who embarrassed Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in Chad in the 1980s), jihadists (evidenced by Saudi Arabia’s terrible performance in Yemen), and adversaries such as the US and Iran (as in the case of Iraq). The Middle East has been described as one of the most militarized regions of the world, but why is it that Arab armies, specifically, seem unable to defeat non-Arab adversaries?