Are Arabs Usually in a State of War?

RL: Most people in the region have been living in peacetime most of the time since independence.

Swank: Seems to detail a different picture here…

There has not been a war fought on Moroccan territory. Morocco has been at peace 10

Algeria fought a civil war from 1991-2000.  That is 10 years out of 53.

There has not been a war fought on Tunisian territory. Tunisia has been at peace 10

Libya fought a 4 day border war with Egypt in 1977. There was an on and off war in Chad for 8 years between 1978-1987. There has been civil war since the overthrow of Ghaddafi. That is 12 years of war out of 63 years. Libya has been at peace 9

Egypt was involved in several wars with Israel, but they didn’t last long. The total adds up to maybe 2 years at most. That’s 2 years of war out of 93 years.

Indeed, Palestine has been embroiled war almost all the time since 1947.

Jordan has only fought some wars with Israel. Maybe 2 years of war out of the last 66 years.

Syria fought several wars with Israel, but the combined total only lasted two years. They fought a war with the Muslim Brotherhood that went on perhaps 1 year. There has been a civil war since 2012. That is 6 years of war out of 64 years.

Saudi Arabia has not been in any wars since 1920 that I am aware of. However, there was an internal civil war that lasted a few years recently, but it was a very low level war. Saudi Arabia was briefly targeted in the Gulf War but that was only for a year. That’s 3 years out of 95.

Oman has not been in any wars since 1920 that I am aware of. Oman has been at peace 10

Bahrain has not been in any wars since 1920 that I am aware of. Bahrain has been at peace 10

UAE has not been in any wars since 1920 that I am aware of. UAE has been at peace 10

Qatar has not been in any wars since 1920 that I am aware of. Qatar has been at peace 10

Kuwait has been at war only with Iraq and that was only for a few weeks. That is 1 month out of 95 years.

Yemen did fight a civil war that lasted maybe 8 years. This resulted in a split in the country. There has been an internal war against Al Qaeda for maybe 4 years now. That’s 12 years out of 54.

Iraq fought a brief war with the British in 1941, but it only lasted one month. There was civil war in Mosul in 1959, but it lasted no more than a week. Iraq fought a number of wars with Israel, but those amounted to no more than 2 years. The Iran-Iraq War lasted 8 years. The Gulf War was over in less than a year and was by an internal civil war on 6 months. Iraq has been at war since the Iraq War in 2003, 11 years. Since 1932, Iraq has been at war for 22 years. That is 22 out of 83.

Lebanon fought a few wars against Israel, adding up to no more than 2 years. There was a brief civil war in 1958 lasting no more than one month. There was a major civil war in Lebanon for 15 years, from 1975-1990. Hezbollah fought a 1 month war with Israel in 2006. There was a brief civil war in 2007 with the Lebanese army fought a 4 month civil war against Fatah-al-Islam. In 2008, Hezbollah fought a 1 week war with the government. The Syrian Civil War has spilled over into Lebanon for the last year. Lebanon has been at war for 19 out of 70 years.

Conclusion: Most countries in the Arab World have been at peace most of the time since Independence.

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7 thoughts on “Are Arabs Usually in a State of War?”

  1. I’m not sure this is a meaningful statistic. Even very, very aggressive countries are technically going to at peace more than 50% of the time.

    It also matters what kind of peace it is.

    Are we talking about a naturally calm boarder like between the U.S. and Canada or are we talking about constant support of rebel groups trying to wrest control and influence away from each other with terrorism, along powerful totalitarian strong men that have to keep the populace in line with fear and extremely censorship.

  2. What counts is not a country’s percentage of official war onto another country, but a country’s average percentage of men performing acts of war as a living or to secure a living. Algeria has had very little days of official war against any other country, but “peacetime” life in Algeria has always been warlike, like in Syria. As any man in Algeria working in any field, you have to think like a soldier or a guerilla. France used to be at war with three or four countries on the average, but until very recent times its way of life was peaceful.

  3. Robert, your concept of “being at war” does not accurately reflect the drain of having a million young men dying on the front, like the Iran-Iraq War of 80-88. Even the US can’t stand that more than a handful of years.
    Algeria is governed by its military. So were Tunisia and Libya, before the US sprang.
    Lebanon is a non-state since the West plotted to kick the Syrians out; all communities as well a two million migrants from Palestine and Syria are huddled together and reign over neighborhoods thanks to foreign money from Saudi or Iran.

    As the saying goes, si vis pacem para bellum. Arab societies have been transforming for fear that Israel expands its domination or territory. They’re ready to fight tooth and nail, that it, religiously. It was nice to be a citizen of these countries. . . sometime between decolonization and the Six Days War!

    1. What are you, a Jew?

      Your argument makes no sense.

      Let’s take apart your crazy argument one by one. Yes there were 1 million casualties in the Iran-Iraq War. There were 3 million casualties in Vietnam War and the same in the Korean War. So what’s your point. Arabs are “always at war” because they had some war with a million dead.

      Now let’s look at the rest of this nutty argument.

      Algeria is governed by its military. So were Tunisia and Libya, before the US sprang.

      Those arguments are insane. Because these countries were military dictatorships, this explains why they have not been at war much with other countries!

      Lebanon is a non-state since the West plotted to kick the Syrians out; all communities as well a two million migrants from Palestine and Syria are huddled together and reign over neighborhoods thanks to foreign money from Saudi or Iran.

      Somehow the fact that it’s a non-state means it cannot be at war, internally or otherwise!

      As the saying goes, si vis pacem para bellum. Arab societies have been transforming for fear that Israel expands its domination or territory. They’re ready to fight tooth and nail, that it, religiously. It was nice to be a citizen of these countries. . . sometime between decolonization and the Six Days War!

      What is the point of all this blather? The charge was by some leftwing nut: “Arab societies are continuously at war and therefore bla bla bla some comparison was invalid. The article showed that the liberal was wrong as usual and in fact the Arabs have not always been at war.

      Now you come in here and don’t answer the question either, though you claim to be doing so. Whatever the Hell point are you trying to make here except “Arabs suck?”

      1. Those who pretend that “Arabs are perpetually at war” are brainwashed, those who pretend that their societies are at peace are close-minded.
        Your line of argument goes by counting years of actual war. But that’s not fair. These states have been perpetually on the brink of war, either with islamists, when they are or were secular, or with zionist and zionist-owned governments.
        The point you object to was prejudiced but prejudice doesn’t come from nowhere. Veils, headscarves, thought police, religious power, were simply absent in the Muslim cities of the 1950s and even up to the late 1970s. I see this as a reaction against the decaying West, and a defense against potential Zionist subversion. Today, religion itself is being turned against secular governments. Al-Qaeda was nothing in Muslim history but a good pretext for the ZOG. The more the media paint Arabs as terrorists, the more money can be sent to transform the region.
        You are doing a disservice to the Arabs fighting this prejudice, with lame arguments such as ‘Lebanon is currently at peace’. What you should show is whose war have they been drawn into. It’s an old tactic to turn the nations against themselves. Tsipras just did this with his referendum. Freemasons did this in 1789 France. Lawrence of Arabia did this by turning the Arabs against the Turks to get Palestine. The list goes on.

        1. What exactly are you saying then, that even at peace, we have to constantly prepare for war with the terrorists?

          As to prejudice coming from nowhere, where did Iran get the idea that stealing a join American-British oilfield would be a good thing?
          Do you think that might have “prejudiced” the Civilized World against Iran?

        2. Also, do you count monetary and materiel supply to terrorists as being at war or being at peace?
          Where DOES HAMAS get such terrible toys?
          Or Hezbollah, Al-Shabbab, etc.?

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