Yes, a bit reminiscent of the experience of the Brits back in the late-19th century in the Mahdiist War. While Egypt was, legally, part of the doddering Ottoman Empire, an effective British “strong hegemony” existed over Egypt. The government of Egypt was effectively controlled by a British “resident”. However, when it came to security and defence, the British relied on the Egyptian army, in which they made a considerable investment in training and equipment. Egyptian security responsibilities included control over the then-ill defined southern territory of the Sudan, over which Egypt claimed authority.
In the first phase of the war - the one that culminated in the Mahdi’s capture of Khartoum and the death of British General of Engineers George (“Chinese”) Gordon, Egyptian units performed particularly badly. An army of some 10,000 Egyptians - admittedly badly led by a former British General in Egyptian service, William ("Hicks Pasha) Hicks - was almost annihilated (literally) by a Mahdiist army of Baggara tribesmen, at El Obeid. Soon after, British efforts to open a corridor to Khartoum from Sudan’s east coast was frustrated in no small part by the failure of Egyptian forces to support their British “comrades” in their campaign against the local Mahdist Beja tribesmen (the “fuzzy wuzzies” of Kipling and Corporal Jones, more or less loyal to the Mahdi). Given the option, they generally turned tail and ran away. This failure led directly to the Khartoum fiasco, and the effective defeat of the British in the early phase of this war.
It was a different story when the British returned, about 10 years later, under the command of old East Africa hand, General Herbert Kitchener. Considerable effort was put into the retraining of the Egyptian army - upon which considerable reliance was still put - and it was rearmed (if not always with state-of-the-art weapons) at least with pretty effective ones. In this case, when the British/Egyptian force advanced towards Khartoum, the Egyptian troops showed competence and determination. There was little running away, whether the opponents were Baggara or Beja. While, arguably, the critical battle of the second phase of the war - at Omdurman - hinged on the British, Lee-Enfield armed contingent, the Egyptians played their part here too. A major contrast with earlier events, I think.
Oddly, there are parallels between the Madhiist War and the current “Coalition”/Iraqi conflict against IS. In both cases, the conflict was between a major world power and an Islamic insurgency. In both cases, the major power involved seriously underestimated the opposing forces in the initial phase of the conflict. In both cases, the major power was very reluctant to commit its own “boots on the ground” essentially for political reasons, leading to reliance on locally-raised forces to deal with the problem. In both cases, the early phases of the campaign revealed grievous flaws in the supposedly well-trained local forces, leading to defeat in the short term.
Regarding the Mahdiist War, the end-result was that a force from the major power (GB), assisted by a strongly improved local force, destroyed their enemy. Might this be the end-result in the current Iraq/Syria situation ? Hard to say. For every similarity between the situation of the Mahdiist War, there is at least one dissimilarity. The comparison does offer some sort of hope. However, one very clear point is that the initial effort to create a “new” Iraqi army was a dreadful failure. Unless acceptable “boots” can be secured from currently uncommitted powers in the region, it seems necessary that the Iraqi army needs to be completely retrained and possibly re-equipped. The same can be said in relation to the Kurdish forces, which are fighting determinedly to stem the IS tide. Whether it will be possible to achieve this, in view of the complex political in the region (much more complex than in the case of the Mahdiist War), and of the close engagement of the combatants in this case, is open to question. In any event, the prospects remain very unclear … Yours from the Dungeons of Omdurman, JR.
