>>507199725 Islam is just Arabic culture distilled into a religious format and the kind of backbiting you describe is an age old Arab practice but its only one half of the problem. When Arabs aren't trying to overthrow the man in charge, they spend all their time and energy flattering him for favors. A big part of this ass-kissing is never doing ANYTHING better than the boss. If your commander is an idiot, you must make yourself a drooling moron to make him look good.
That said, Turks and Persians are only partly Arabized and can sometimes reign in the worst of the Islamic excesses and can occasionally have good leadership. Unfortunately for modern day Iran, they're led by zealous raghead nitwits and they're dirt poor to boot. Israel has unlimited American funding and the best American technology and Iran is trying to destroy them on a shoestring budget.