Everyone has suffered from IEDs..look at the US losses in Iraq and Afghanistan.. no one can say that the US army lacks medics or anything..
That's not the point and the comparison is largely flawed.
Yes, Coalition forces suffered from the IED in Afghanistan being the largest mechanism of injury and fatality. But they also had a duty of care towards their soldiers and their well being that was acted upon. This is a case of something being done rather than being said.
The chances of survival upon serious injury rise exponentially if the casualty is treated within the first ten minutes and delivered to a surgery capable trauma center within an hour, or the Golden Hour.
In an attempt to deliver that every rifleman is medically trained for casualty first aid to include gun shot wounds and IED amputation. Every platoon has a professional medical technician (combat medic) who can conduct more complex procedures. To that end a first response is guaranteed and quickly.
That is then followed by a sophisticated medical/casualty evacuation system that is layered to respond to different seriousness in injury, what you have is a mixture of company aid posts, regimental aid posts, and then field hospitals. We're interested in the latter as it is what usually deals with serious IED injuries.
In order to garuntee casualties are delivered to a field hospital (Camp Bastion) forwaed aeromedical evacution was shared by the US Air Force (Pedro Blackhawks which would deploy even if LZ was hot), UK Army Air Corps (Chinooks that could provide a limited amount of surgery escorted by Apaches but would only land if LZ was clear), and the US Army (similar to the Pedros).
Once at Bastion casualties would undergo surgery in the best crash trauma hospital in the world. Also capable of inpatient treatment till casualties can be transported for further treatment on home soil.
Before any of that Coalition forces were given the best chance they could to defeat or avoid IEDs. Every individual soldier taught how to pick out discrepancies while patrolling as part of a 5 to 20m check and to walk in each others footsteps.
They patrolled with the right equipment whether that be MRAPs, Ground penetrating radar and mineral detectors for a point man, signal jammers both on vehicles and man packed, and simple stuff like spray paint or mine tape to lay out safe routes to avoid IEDs.
All this in an area of operations several tens of times larger than Northern Sinai while also being far more complex to fight in. There is a difference between saying you care and actually caring. There are also consequences for when negligence or incompetence leads to a casualty or fatality. With NATO forces generally being accountable both internally and to the wider public. There are several cases of forces being sued for failures and many that were actually won in court.
So while Western forces strategically blunder on a tactical level they are very competent and have been since the 20th century.
So if you did want a flawed comparison then it would go something like this:
- Within Egyptian Army units on operations there isn't any medical equipment or knowledge. There are no combat medics
- First responders are usually civilian EMTs who can't go in under fire and are targeted by terrorists while evacuating casualties on predictable pre-determined routes. So the military gets their own and civilians killed at times.
- There is no forward aeromedical evacuation. Although Egypt does have a Combat Search and Rescue capability it is somewhat immature and needs more resources, its focus is mainly pilot rescue for the Air Force and Navy.
- The main hospitals used in Northern Sinai are the General and Military hospitals. Both provide no where near the level of care that was present in Bastion although they do thankfully save lives.
- Egyptian soldiers are not competent at patrolling on foot and their reactions to IED whether spotted or gone off is terrible (in one Sinai Province video soldiers spot an IED, three of them proceed to walk towards it and it is then detonated by command), as is their reaction to contact.
- MRAPs are finally being introduced but M113s, Fahds, and other unsuitable vehicles are still more prevelant than they should be. C-IED equipment (ground penetrating radar/mineral detectors) is generally held by Engineer EOD teams, the only protection infantry have is from RC IED on vehicle mounted jammers, they do not have any man packed jammers.
- Egyptian forces have suffered nearly two times the number of combat related fatalities in Northern Sinai as the UK had in the entirety of Afghanistan within 3-4 years in an area of responsibility far smaller and in far better circumstances.
- There is an evident gap between what the military says and what it does. The training, equipment, and support/resources is all testament to that. You can not claim they are the best trained, educated, and looked after when they are tactically inept, lack knowledge on the threats they are facing, and are left to die once injured.
- No matter how large the blunder the military in Egypt is immune to being publicly accountable. They may rarely dismiss someone internally but that is often not enough.
There is an overwhelming and obvious unfairness in the Army as well. I said Officers in London for a reason, conscripts and NCOs don't get that privilege no matter how injured they are.
