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I think you're making a joke, but there's actually a really interesting book with that title that goes over Carthage's history and Phoenician origins.
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If anyone has even a passing curiosity about Carthage beyond the surface level you learn reading about Hellenistic history, that book is probably one of the best.
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Title of the book is Carthage Must Be Destroyed in case the previous post goes away.
Muslims also enslaved whites when they could. A white man’s place depended greatly on how he responded to the beatings, and whether or not he converted to Islam. White women were used as sex slaves.
https://www.amazon.com/White-Gold-Extraordinary-Thomas-Million/dp/0374289352
Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143121294/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_cxv8DbZAZCZS4
More of an overview of Carthage’s entire history but it has some very interesting theories about the Punic Wars. Particularly the role of religion in shaping the Second Punic War.
Eh, Israel would definitely lose this war. Arab militaries are mostly weak and poorly run (1, 2), but Turkey, Nigeria, and Indonesia all have fairly effective militaries. Also, Morocco and Egypt, the two most powerful and effective Arab militaries, would not be sitting this war out like they have more recent Arab-Jewish wars.
Of course, that disparity in military effectiveness sort of explains why this whole idea is laughable. This entire pseudo-state would effectively result in a few powerful cultures and militaries dominating everyone else, supposed brotherhood in Islam be damned. It would basically be a renewed Ottoman Empire, with Turks in the drivers' seat alongside Indonesians and a few other chosen peoples. I'm fairly certain the last time this happened there were one or two Arab revolts.
Related note, this is a very good study of Arab military ineffectiveness: https://www.amazon.com/Armies-Sand-Present-Military-Effectiveness/dp/0190906960
I've been recommended to read Armies of Sand to explain how Arab militaries consistently go to shit and lose wars they have no right losing; so maybe I'll be able to get some answers from that, since it takes a deep look into Arabic culture and the background of the various countries in the region.
Book doesn't come until Saturday though and it'll probably take me a few weeks to get through it if work is busy.
Like early Mormons some Arab societies are polygamous societies and polygamous societies are violent societies. You can see this in Colorado City (a wholly owned FLDS polygamous Mormon settlement) that... last I checked... periodically expels young men, reserving the young women for the older more established males.
The Perfect Man (peace be upon him) established this pattern by marrying multiple women and enslaving many more. The Arab slave trade primarily used African males for labor, preferring European women for sex... though African females weren't necessarily excluded from the sex slavery trade. Read White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves.
So... no... Arab men do not hate women, far from it.
You are absolutely right! I highly recommend the book “Carthage Must Be Destroyed” if you are interested in this subject.
Not sure if intentional or not, but the book with the same title is a great read! It made me appreciate how cunning and imaginative Hannibal was.
Richard Miles' Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization . The book is very well written and takes the reader through the origins of Carthage's founding to the peak of it's mercantile empire, and ultimately the Punic wars and the city's destruction. I found it refreshing to read about Carthage from a non-Roman perspective. Definitely check it out!
Hey there! I recently finished Kenneth Pollack's Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness , and it's fantastic! Pollack provides a comprehensive overview of the socio-cultural, economic and political factors that impacted the development and effectiveness of Arab militaries. Definitely worth a read!
On the heels of that, I also recently finished Gawdat Bahgat and Anoushiravan Ehteshami's Defending Iran: From Revolutionary Guards to Ballistic Missiles . The book provides an excellent overview of Iran's offensive and defensive capabilites, accounting for its strategic vision and both its hard and soft power capabilities.
Hey there! I recently finished Kenneth Pollack's Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness , and it's fantastic! Pollack provides a comprehensive overview of the socio-cultural, economic and political factors that impacted the development and effectiveness of Arab militaries. Definitely worth a read!
On the heels of that, I recently picked up Gawdat Bahgat and Anoushiravan Ehteshami's Defending Iran: From Revolutionary Guards to Ballistic Missiles . The book provides an excellent overview of Iran's offensive and defensive capabilites, accounting for its strategic vision and both its hard and soft power capabilities.
Oh they've definitely changed dramatically. I am not a military historian, I've just read a handful of books on the subject. But the two broad categories in which things have changed:
1) Disposability
Up to and including WWII, soldiers were still more or less like pawns on a battlefield. To be used and, if necessary, sacrificed.
These days, the army really really really doesn't want their dudes to die, if they can help it. Because a dude dying means like a million dollars worth of gear and training going up in smoke, and months of time to replace him
2) Independence
Up to and including WWI, soldiers were expected to follow orders, stay in formation, and generally shut off their brains. In modern warfare it is very, very, very not like this.
I was recently reading a book called Armies of Sand that seeks to answer the question (I'm paraphrasing) of "why does Israel consistently curbstomp Arab armies 10x their size?" One of the answers given is that Arab armies haven't adapted to modernity. They wait for orders instead of taking initiative and acting independently. The book points out that the IDF (as well as other modern western forces) devolve a considerably higher amount of planning and decisionmaking to lower levels of command than in the past, and how this is necessary on a modern battlefield. Modern battlefields just move too damn fast to keep the (eg) napoleonic army norms of "follow orders and stay in formation even under fire"
Hey there! I recently picked up Kenneth Pollack's Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness , and it's fantastic!
Pollack providesa comprehensive overview of the socio-cultural, economic and political factors that impacted the development and effectiveness of Arab militaries. Definitely worth a read!
That is correct. His father learned a lot about Roman troop and governmental design during the 1st Punic War and passed that info to his son. Also, Hannibal was given the best education from Greek educators and slaves regarding all things art, war and Rome.
Source: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization | https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143121294/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_K73QAA1BXZA9GWD8CAHK
I listened to an audiobook, I believe it is the Ghosts of Cannae:
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The author spent a whole chapter on how it would be possible to kill that many men in a few hours. Overall I liked the book, it actually covers the entire 2nd Punic war in some detail. You might check it out, especially if you can borrow a copy for free from the library to just check out that one chapter. As I recall (I listened to it years ago), part of the discussion was psychological, how people can simply become passive when all hope is lost. So the theory is that maybe the Romans simply stopped fighting.
> Why does noone talk about...
Thing is, they do. Here's my favorite book on Carthage, ancient enemy of the Roman Republic and quite possibly the most powerful civilization to exist in North Africa before the caliphates.
Don't abuse the word racist, these guys aren't predisposed to crime, they just live in a culture where libel, bullying, and theft are just seen as normal ways to get stuff done. I once got into a fight on r/egypt with a lady who insisted that all dogs are rabid vindictive maniacs and the solution was to teach kids to throw rocks at them (BTW, Egypt has +1,000,000 feral dogs and cats on the streets).
Tunisia is a competitive oligarchy with many factions and murder and a domestic DAESH uprising a few years ago and frequent massive corruption busts and has been in a constant state of crisis since the Arab Revolt. Many people voted in favor of Sharia law and the election of clerics to office.
As for Lebanon, well one of the few things they'll all agree on is there's nothing more permanent than a temporary situation. At one point, militias that owned the bulk of the illicit marijuana trade made threats if pot was legalized. Why? Their near monopoly allowed them to inflate the price. Same goes for electronics, where licenses to deal computers are given by officials to personal friends and, uh, "business partners."
But I'll eventually I'll write a comprehensive history of the Arab-Israeli Wars. For you, I recommend "Armies of Sand" by Kenneth Pollack. He's a war journalist who breaks it down exceptionally thoroughly by eliminating every other explanation for the bizarre behavior of this region except one: Culture.
>And if Ethiopia did decide to divert the course of the Nile, then Egypt could absolutely attack Ethiopia
Except it can't. They don't share a border, Egypts planes can't reach Ethiopia aaand Sudan is on Ethiopia's side.
>and with their superior military might they may just crush Ethiopia and make it part of Egypt. Then there will be no disputing who owns it.
Egypt and Arab armies at large have failed time and again. They are usually quite weak for a myriad of reasons. But it's a rather well studied phenomenon. Egypt couldn't take Ethiopia if it tried, it would be stuck in a quagmire and lose the war. Ethiopia is perhaps one of the most defensible nations on earth and the Ethiopians actually have recent war-fighting experience.
Understanding modern Arab military effectiveness by the CFR
<em>Why Arabs lose wars</em> - Middle East Quarterly
>If Ethiopia did completely stop Egypt's lifeblood, then I don't think there would be too many nations in the world who would support them.
And they won't, unless Egypt attacks first, then plenty of nations would support Ethiopia. China would be first to jump at the chance of supporting Ethiopia, it funded the dam and won't see a cent back from their investment if its destroyed.
Egypt has no choice but to accept that Ethiopia is going to fill that reservoir at the speed it wants.
Best book on the subject:
Armies of Sand, by Kenneth M. Pollack
https://www.amazon.com/Armies-Sand-Present-Military-Effectiveness/dp/0190906960
It boils down to the Arab culture and mentality. If you don't want read the whole book there is a lecture as well: https://youtu.be/4VzdQuBUqJw
Hi,
The source of the article is this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Gold-Extraordinary-Africas-European/dp/0340794704/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518959794&sr=1-1&keywords=white+gold
https://www.amazon.com/White-Gold-Extraordinary-Thomas-Million/dp/0374289352
I've read other sources too. What I mean is when the kidnapped Europeans arrived in the Barbary States and were sold, they would be beaten if not working hard enough, given little food aside from meager amounts of bread and water, family and friends were seperated and sometimes slaves were even tortured to turn to Islam.
>Sorry Muslims, predictive text got me. And it really doesn't if you listen to the vast majority of Muslims that condemn groups like ISIS and fight them all the time.
I'm referring to what the Quran itself says, not what many moderate Muslims say.
Granted. Because Caucasians have the fairest skin, eye and hair pigmentation they are the gold standard.
edit: sometimes though that's a distinct disadvantage.
https://www.amazon.com/Suez-Britains-Empire-Middle-East/dp/1848855338
How about 650ish? It's the seminal work on it. If you're a historian or policist and you're writing a book that references the Suez Canal Crisis, this is the book that your footnotes lead to.
Read "The Phantom Major" about the founder Maj David Stirling. They parachuted or drove hundreds of miles behind enemy lines and attacked airfields.
It was joked that they deserved Distinguished Flying Crosses, as the SAS were destroying more Luftwaffe planes than the Royal Air Force were.
The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic by Robert O'Connell. It's a fun read about the one of ancient history's biggest battles.
Please Richard Miles book, Carthage Must Be Destroyed.
You'll find that most of your statements were incorrect. References make up about 1/3 of the book, so have at it.
To be clear, the Roman and Greek historians account for large swaths of history still, but their automatic authenticity is largely discredited in this book with more local and timely sources that weren't available until somewhat recently.
White Gold by Giles Milton
'White Gold, is the story of Thomas Pellow, a Cornish cabin boy who was captured at sea by a group of fanatical Islamic slave traders—the Barbary corsairs, taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis and Salè in Morocco and sold to the highest bidder. Pellow’s purchaser happened to be the tyrannical sultan of Morroco, Moulay Ismail, a man committed to building a vast imperial pleasure palace of unsurpassable splendour built entirely by Christian slave labour. After enduring long periods of torture Pellow converted to Islam and became the personal slave of the sultan for over two decades—including a stint as a soldier in the sultan’s army—before finally making a dramatic escape and return to Cornwall.'
https://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Gold-Giles-Milton/dp/0340794704