Written by: Ahmed Zayed – Founder of 73 Historians Group

Topic Translation By: Alaa Abdellatif

From time to time, the web pages show us foreign articles published which is talking about international reports for Global Fire Power and some other studies, whether depending on unknown or known sources, talking about the weaponing deals by the Egyptian forces and the raise of the Egyptian Army classification among the other armies in the world sometimes to the 10^th place and other times to the 12^th place, etc.

After publishing such reports, a showy act starts by the advertisements in the Egyptian media that would reach the state to make the media channels host some military experts to talk about these reports which could be used for political purposes for a certain party side or against another party, and some take advantage of this for advertising purpose and others who only speak without actual knowledge for the topic.

These reports affect clearly the spiritual state of the public that would reach the level of being affected with an unannounced psychological war.

The truth is that these reports, whether true or fake, is a planned trap for Egypt as a whole and for the Egyptian army specially, if they believed such reports.

FIFA

We shall start the article with a strange example because this example is the nearest to the majority of hearts and minds of the public. The international football league (FIFA) puts a classification for the international teams and clubs based on the results of the teams in the international matches and championships won by those clubs and depending on this an honest integrating and reliable classification is put for the team’s level and based on honest and reliable evaluation the teams’ classification is put.

But this concept is not applicable for the armies’ on an international level. Why?

The reports considering the countries’ classification depends mainly on the financial consumption for the military (team financial balance), the type of weapons owned by those countries and the enumeration of power forces including aircrafts, tanks, ships, etc (team players), and depending on the level of training announced for these armed forces (friendly matches).

Since only 99% of the armies in the world do not fight in a war except once every 25-30 years (except for US army which fights in an unfair war almost every day), therefore, evaluating such armies monthly is not based on actual war between two armies near in level and in power (international official matches) in order to perform a reliable measurement for the armies’ classification.

In the modern history, the last known official war between two armies near in power level concerning the army and weaponing was the Iraq-Iran War which it lasted for eight gloomy years, and the result was that both countries have lost hundred milliards of dollars and hundred thousands of killed and injuries without having a reliable result for the war since the major countries fought for making this war last for a long period as much as possible for the exhaustion for both countries’ resources and for flourishing weapon commerce.

After the Gulf War, media reports of informal military organizations were released and indicated that Army of Iraq is the sixth power in the world at the moment that the Army of Iran have been retreated in the world classification to the 24^th place. These reports did not give reasons for why the sixth power in the world did not win the war and did not achieved a clear military victory, but it only managed in regaining its land parts taken by the 24^th power in the world.

The main point that means for us in telling this story is clarifying very important points;

First: There is nothing called “The Classification of the Armies in the World”,

Second: Why are such reports are released to us from time to another?

First: There is nothing called “The Classification of the Armies in the World”

We mentioned in the beginning of the article that the reports concerning the International Classification of Armies depend on a number of basic rules for evaluating the armies (balance, enumeration, announced training level, etc), but these basis are poorly accessed to some factors and other basic rules which cannot be quantity measured, therefore these reports insist on completely neglecting these basic rules for releasing a report that would be believed by the public and published, and in return achieves large advertising and financial gain for the publisher.

From these factors that cannot be quantity measured are:

1. Level of the weapon user: This means that many countries have the same kind of weapons for example F16 aircraft. Is the Egyptian pilot’s level is equivalent for the American, or the Emirati, or the Pakistani, or the Israeli pilot’s levels? Of course not, since there is difference between the levels of training for the pilots of countries using the same kind of weapon. Also, there is a difference in levels of pilots inside the army itself since not all pilots are with the same efficiency and experience, therefore it cannot be considered that countries that own more aircrafts or more developed aircrafts is a developed country; an example for this is Qatar which owns highly developed aircrafts although it has no Qatari pilots at all.
2. Combat Doctrine: It is an essential weapon for any army in the world which is not applicable to be measured using a reliable measuring tool. The man’s belief for the issue which he is fighting for makes him fight with ferocity and surpass upon himself and his enemy. For example, the Vietnam-American War in which the Communist part of the country won against a major country (US) although owning at the beginning of fighting the Kalashnikov guns against a country that owns all kinds of weapons, but combat doctrine for the Vietnams and their belief for their issue justice made them achieve victory in the end and kick out US forces totally from Vietnam to become the most major shameful lose for the US army in its short history.
3. Morale: It is considered to be the strongest weapon of an army but it cannot be measured by any means and its existence cannot be denied as well. The international reports do not consider this essential weapon. This weapon enabled the Egyptian Army to break into the Barlev Line in six hours only although all the international reports at that time used to confirm that Egypt needs a tactical nuclear bomb or the weapons of both the US and Soviet engineers to work together. As well, the same weapons Mag-21 and Mag-17 aircrafts till Mi-8 helicopter faces the Israeli Fandom and drop it, and it is the same weapon that made the infantryman jump on the Israeli tanks and destroy it.
4. Abilities of weapons manufacturing for each country: Of course the abilities of manufacturing of weapons varies from one country to another and it is unreliable to compare between a weapon-manufacturer country with a weapon-consumer country since the weapon-manufacturer country puts restrictions on exporting the weapons for other countries and as long as you are a country which does not make your own weapon so you will be always under the merci of the weapon-manufacturer countries.
5. The technical abilities of countries’ armies: This factor is also immeasurable and not considered in such reports. If we compare between two countries importing the same kind of weapon; one self-develops this weapon and performs frequent maintenance and calibration for it, and the other country buys this weapon for only showing purposes among other countries but it does not perform essential maintenance or development for it. When comparing between these two countries we find that the one which does not care for its weapon development may be have a high place in classification just because of buying more pieces of weapon or because of consuming more money for the military balance although these reports does not check inside the army units to know the actual durations of these weapons.
6. Combat readiness: Combat readiness is one of the critical army secrets which the army tries by all means to hide from the eyes and from the hostile and friendly intelligence agencies, because the knowledge about the combat readiness of the armies is for the enemies equivalent for more than that knowing the kinds of weapons that it becomes publicly announced in all the websites of weapon-manufacturers companies. For a clarifying example, a country bought 100 pieces of aircrafts, after one year only 90 pieces are ready for fighting due to the lack of maintenance or the spare parts or the pilots. After one more year, only 80 pieces are ready for the same reasons or for other technical, economical, or political reasons. The international reports only show that this country owns 100 pieces although the truth is that the actual number of aircrafts ready for fighting is much less than that announced. Therefore, Information Gathering Systems depend on collecting precise information about the combat readiness of armies but these published reports ignores considering this point in the infography it publish periodically, and everybody fight for boasting with this immediately on the military pages on the internet or in the information portals in newspapers and magazines.

Second: Why are such reports are released to us from one time to another?

After the First Gulf War 1980-1988, the global media horns (since the internet was not invented yet) have announced that the Iraqi Army became the 6^th in the world and it’s highly developed and had high skills (all presented by western countries which were mostly developed in leadership systems and control during the Iran War). Unfortunately, the Iraqis believed those reports promoted to them in public (and secretly and during the intelligence agencies’ meetings), and Saddam Hussein also believed that he owned really a strong army which was true but it was pushed by force to get rid of it after the end of the war with Iran and Iraq fell in debt for the Gulf countries. Then, it was the time to get rid of it using a well-planned conspiracy by April Glaspy, the American Embassador in Baghdad at that time, who paved the way for Saddam Hussein for the idea of conquering Kuwait for demanding the petroleum fields which were conflicting for. In Iraqi clear statements after the conquer of Kuwait, Iraq had announced that US confirmed no objection for any Iraqi military acts against Kuwait, and consequently Iraq fell in the trap … Being so much excitable with the fake reports concerning its exaggerated military abilities and that what Collins Paul, the former US minister of foreign affairs, has confessed in a TV conversation that those reports were fabricated for flourishing vanity in Saddam, the same for the fabricated reports concerning the Iraqi nuclear program which justifies the American attack in Iraq in 2003.

After the appearance of the Internet as a means of advertisement which gets in every home and every mind with no permission, those reports started to be converted from media reports to reports having the characteristics of intelligence status making the recipient believe the report and agrees with all its contents (90% of the report is true as numbers only) and that what is so noticeable recently.

Those reports started to promote the state of the Egyptian military during the past five years and the global classification of the army has been raised during that period depending on the concluded weapon deals although a large number of these deals were not performed actually in the Egyptian armed forces since its existence during the receive and training stages, those reports show the Egyptian military abilities in an exaggerated way.

In one of the published reports in 2017, it was announced that Egypt is in the 13^th place at the same time that North Korea is in the 35^th although the major difference for the advantage of North Korean army for its unique abilities which the report neglected it.

In the same report, Iran’s place is declared to be among the military developed countries although the globally published military information talking about the Iran Armed Forces is just a hollow coincidence, and the reports released from Iran concerning the manufacturing of tanks, aircrafts, missiles, and submarines are fake reports for weapons which were not and will not be involved in the field of real life manufacturing. That is similar to the Egyptian tries in the 1960s in performing missiles’ program and aircraft

manufacturing program which were aborted by an active act.

The Outcome

The reports of the world armies classification are not reliable and not technical reports depending on numbers, mostly those numbers are true, but it is falsely translated for delivering morality messages and a psychological war targeting the Egyptian public nation and the Egyptian army for the advantage of implanting excess trust which would reach the level of vanity in the spirits of the public nation and Egyptian army, and this is not for reducing the true weight and skills of the Egyptian army but it is a try from us to place the issues in its right places. Egypt lost in 1967 after being affected and blinded with vanity and that that it was able to throw Israel in the sea, and the same experience is repeated with Israel when they believed that it is the invincible army and they are able to conquer the North Pole and their lose in 1973 came as a result.

The same happened with the Iraqi Army in 1991 when the desert storm started and the Iraqi army, the 6^th power in the world as rumored, was eliminated.

These reports are a mean of implanting excess trust in the spirits of the Egyptian officers and commanders, and of course in the Egyptian public nation itself in order to weaken the army in preparation for what is coming later.

It is well known that if any army is affected with excess trust it starts to give lower weight for the training and combat readiness and the what the enemies of Egypt are looking forward to; to close the eyes just for one second to receive the attack, same as the attack of 1967 again for the subjugation of Egypt.

What was happening in Egypt during the period of 2014-2017 was the same what Mohammed Ali did in his attempts to build up a strong Egyptian army before being stabbed by the conquering forces at that time, and it was the same what Gamal Abdel Nasser did at the beginning of the 1950s and he experienced an attempt for projection in 1956 which has failed and again in 1967 which had succeeded, and after that the Egyptian military manufacturing wheel has been stopped completely due to the Soviet pressurizing means.

The follower for the Egyptian army states has the right to be proud that we have a strong army with high fighting efficiency; thanks to God and thanks to hard efforts and frequent trainings, this army which was, still, and will always be a target for the enemies of Egypt; the known ones, the unknown ones, and the masked ones in the form of friends and brothers.

And let us remember what Richard Norman, an American Jewish politician and one of the supreme persons who called for the attack on Iraq, said that Iraq is the technical target for the campaign, Saudi Arabia is the strategical target, and Egypt is the Great Prize.

For this we have to frequently train and be ready for being involved in a coming war with more developed armies and with more skillful means, and never over estimate the abilities of our army which could and can always repeat the achievement of October 1973 War; always with faith, frequent training, and high fighting efficiency.