You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Analysis of Syrian Military
2006-07-27
Posted by:Anonymoose

#12  "Goodness, another thing for poor Mr. Levant to worry about, being as he posts via Syria"

Yes, I suppose the poor thing has been called up by now. Imagine being a second-rate commentor in a third-rate army.
Posted by: Fordesque   2006-07-27 21:33  

#11  LOL -- that's more like it.
Posted by: Matt   2006-07-27 20:29  

#10  OK, #8 Matt - any Texas grade school girls' cheerleading squad.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2006-07-27 19:43  

#9  Mitch-
FWIW, my experience with the Saudis was that although the Israelis could kick their asses up around their ears if it came down to it, the Army and AF was fairly professional and capable - IF there was an American standing close by.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2006-07-27 19:36  

#8  Oh come on Barbara, use a more realistic comparison.
Posted by: Matt   2006-07-27 18:33  

#7  that the Syrian army has badly lost every single war, every single encounter it's ever fought with anyone other than the Jordanians.

Oh I get it, so while we trained Egypt, Soddies, and Jordan, the French must have trained Syria?

Sorry it was just too easy.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2006-07-27 18:17  

#6  Goodness, another thing for poor Mr. Levant to worry about, being as he posts via Syria (according to our clever moderators who read IP addresses like I read English).
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-07-27 17:51  

#5  "the Syrian military remains one of the largest and best-trained forces in the Arab world"

But any Texas high-school girls' cheerleading squad could kick the crap out of them in 15 minutes. On a slow day.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2006-07-27 17:50  

#4  While it is still largely true that the Syrian military remains one of the largest and best-trained forces in the Arab world[...]

"Best-trained"? Where the hell did that brainfart come from? The Syrian Army was, and probably is, the worst-trained major Arab armed force in existence, if you class the Libyan & Lebanese armies as "minor", which I'm inclined to do. The Saudi, Jordanian, and Egyptian armies are US-trained, in part or in whole, and while they may still be typically rubbishy Arab laughingstocks with deeply ingrained cultural military incompetence bred into their bones, they are still ahead of the Syrians, who are still organized & semi-trained to sadly obsolete Soviet standards.

The author of the article himself notes that the Syrian army has badly lost every single war, every single encounter it's ever fought with anyone other than the Jordanians. It only managed to occupy Lebanon after fifteen grinding, exhausting years of civil war, and that with the connivance of Hezbollah.

In fact, I suspect that Hezbollah could out-fight the entire Syrian Army itself, despite the ten-to-one numerical disparity.

Hmm. I wonder whether such a thing might occur, Black September-style, if Hezbollah was driven out of Lebanon into Syrian exile for any particular length of time.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2006-07-27 17:28  

#3  1 read it more closely - the same corps covers the Turkish AND Iraqi borders.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2006-07-27 16:33  

#2  http://www.meib.org/articles/0108_s1.htm

A more complete version by the same AFI person.
Posted by: Clerert Uneamp2772   2006-07-27 12:21  

#1  I didn't see discussion on which assets are protecting their eastern border - they have Turkish border covered, and Lebanon, and Israel/Golan, but not the back door. Presumably an obsolete article?
Posted by: glenmore   2006-07-27 11:57  

00:00