He was greatly influenced by stories of courage and valor, about family members and ancestors. His grandfather fought and died, leading a bayonet charge, with Khedive Ismail Pasha's armed forces in Sudan. His uncle, a Pasha, a member of parliament.
Before the revolution, as a member of the upper class, El-Shazly was a Captain in the King's Royal Guards. King Farouk of Egypt surrounded by the Elite Royal Guards. Captain El Shazly is in first row on the right.
HIS IMPECCABLE MILITARY CREDENTIALS:
- He founded the paratroopers in Egypt, in 1954.
- Commander of the first Parachute Battalion in Egypt (1955–1959). Command of 75th Parachute Battalion during the Suez affair when Britain, France & Israel attacked Egypt
- Commander of the United Arab battalion (Egyptian-Syrian) in the United NationsOperation in the Congo (ONUC) (1960–1961)
With the rank of Full Colonel in the Congo
- Military attaché in London (1961–1963)
- Commander of the 2nd Infantry Division (1965–1966)
- Commander of the Special forces (Commandos & Paratroopers) Corps (1967–1969)
- Commander of the “Shazly group brigade size”, during the 6 days war, he invaded Israel with the intention of investing Eilat on the gulf of Akaba.
- With communication cut between his forces and the Egyptian high command, and in the midst of the worst defeat in modern Egyptian history, he managed to avoid enemy fire and return to Egypt, with his troops and equipment with relatively few losses.
- Commander in chief of the Red Sea Military Zone (1970–1971)
- Equipping and preparing of the Egyptian Armed Forces in the years prior to the successful capture of the Israeli Bar-Lev line at the start of the 1973 war.
- Appointed Chief of Staff of Egypt's armed forces in January 1973
In December 1973, at the pinnacle of his military career, he differed with Sadat on the conduct of war operations and was removed from military service by President Anwar Sadat and appointed:
Ambassador to the UK later
Ambassador to Portugal
PRESIDENT SADAT MEDDLING
El
Shazly was against going further than 15 kilometers into Sinai out of
Artillery & Sam missiles coverage, but Sadat ordered a push
forward which made the Israelis break through into the DESERVOIR with
20,000 & 300 tanks ... El Shazly's plan foresaw this & was
preparing to annihilate them with a reserve of 80,000 & 400
tanks, but Sadat feared, the Israelis will use an Atomic bomb, rather
than seeing 20,000 dead ... El Shazly's response was "let's call
their bluff, let me annihilate them, they are trapped up to Suez"
... That's when Sadat removed him from command!! (I would have acted
just as El Shazly, knowing neither the US nor USSR would have allowed
the use of an Atomic bomb).
_____________________________________
In this photo, you can see that Mubarak (who later became President of Egypt) walking BEHIND El Shazly who was his superior officer.
In 1992, Shazly returned to Egypt after 14 years in exile, in Algeria; for criticizing the policies of President Anwar Sadat. He was arrested in the airport upon his return. No trial ever took place, and Shazly was forced to serve his prison term, despite the rule of law, according to The Egyptian Constitution, that sentences received in absentia, must be retried. During his time in prison Shazly's legal team, succeeded in obtaining a ruling from The Highest Civilian Court, which stated that the prior military conviction was illegal, and declared the military ruling was unconstitutional. The court ordered Shazly's immediate release. None took place. Shazly served the remainder of his sentence.
___________________________________
AUTHOR OF 2 BOOKS which were never published in Egypt.
“The Crossing of The Suez”, and later book.
“The Arab Military Option”
Shazly's Comments:
This is a military memoir: my record as Chief of Staff of The Egyptian Armed Forces, during The Arab-Israeli War of October 1973. It is to the best of my knowledge, unique, being the only memoir of its kind by a contemporary Arab commander. I have written it with reluctance, with sorrow and with anger. When I say that my anger is directed primarily, at The President of Egypt, Anwar El Sadat, it will be understood why I, after a lifetime as a soldier serving my country and my people, was reluctant to take up a pen, and felt sorry that in the end it became an inescapable duty.
They were however; published in English, French and Arabic and sold in many countries. The books has been reviewed by major publications including The Economist, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and others. The books are currently in their second printing.
BOOKS
The
Crossing of The Suez is the only account written in Egypt,
about The Arab Israeli 1973 War, without the censorship of The
Egyptian government.. All books about the war, whether by former
military officers, civilian authors or journalists, have been subject
to editorial censorship, by The Ministry of Defense before
publication. This ruling has kept many of the facts surrounding the
war, still hidden till this day. The
Crossing of the Suez 2003 revised edition, has three new chapters
responding to questions and allegations raised; since its first
publication in1980. Shazly was sentenced to a three years prison
sentence, for writing this book and for his criticism of The Camp
David Agreement.
The Arab Militar option is a
penetrating some time shocking analysis, of the future balance of
power in The Middle East. General Shazly, examines the present and
future military capabilities of Israel and the Arab Countries, and
analyses them in relation to the historic, political and economic
conditions that shape them. He contends that the Arabs can negotiate
a just settlement, only from a position of strength, and explains why
political options are not viable, unless backed by Arab military
capability.
Shazly
demonstrates, that The Arabs possess the elements necessary to
achieve such a goal, and maintains that the balance of power is
tilting against Israel despite the appearance to contrary.
Four
Years in The Diplomatic Service, was one of two books,
confiscated by the government, upon Shazly's return from exile in
1992, along with the rest of his library and personal papers.
________________________________
Shazly's
discussion includes both the weaknesses and strengths in Israel, and
the Arab world. He examines super power politics and interests...
what action, for example, The US might take if faced with a
simultaneous war in Europe and Israel and what role the rapid
deployment force might play?
Shazly concludes by saying. "In demonstrating that The Arab military option is possible, I do not contend that it is necessarily the preferable option, nor that it is the only option. But I do insist that it must never be excluded as a possible option.... If political resolution of the dispute with Israel is to get any where, the military option must march beside it."
DEATH of
General Saad El-Shazly Shazly concludes by saying. "In demonstrating that The Arab military option is possible, I do not contend that it is necessarily the preferable option, nor that it is the only option. But I do insist that it must never be excluded as a possible option.... If political resolution of the dispute with Israel is to get any where, the military option must march beside it."
He died, after a long illness, on Thursday, February 10, 2011, aged 89. He passed away on the same day the army issued its 1st Communiqué announcing indirectly the end of Mubarak rule. Thousands, veterans and younger officers, lined the streets during the funeral procession.
At the time of his death, his picture was not even included in a mural that includes all the war commanders at the October Panorama museum despite the fact that he was Chief of Staff of the Egyptian army during that war !!It was a petty act of revenge by Mubarak who was inferior in rank to El Shazly.
Instead of Sadat, he should be the one towering over all of them.
In 2014, I wrote to Egypt's Ministry of Defense DEMANDING that the effigy of Lt. General Saad El Shazly be included in the pantheon of war heroes.
AFTERMATH
After the 25 of January revolution in 2011 and removal of Mubarak from the Egyptian government, el-Shazly memory was honored by officer's cadets wearing a ring bearing:
his name on the Egyptian Military Academy graduates of the year 2013
His name etched in Arabic
He was also honored by a new highway named after him, connecting the Cairo ring road to Ismailia desert road that is being built by the armed forces engineers.
Aljazeera documentary channel produced a film about his life in 2012-2013.
PROPHETIC PREDICTIONS
In contrast to British Field Marshal Montgomery of El Alamein and 4-stars general Patton of 3rd army ... El Shazly belong to those very few brilliant military tactician who were also endowed with the gift of seeing the whole picture and predicting accurately the course of future social events. He was not only a battle tactician but also a political strategist, in this respect, perhaps in the mold of 1. Napoleon 2. Charles de Gaulle and 3. Hemuth von Moltke
1.
Napoleon: a) China is a sleeping giant, above all we must not awaken it
… b) in 1806, he created the “Confederation of the Rhine”
grouping 16 of the 39 Germanic independent states. Napoleon was in
effect the catalyst for the future unification of Germany which occured in 1871.
2.
Charles de Gaulle: In 1964, as President of France, he was the first
Western leader (Not Richard Nixon) to recognize that there is
only one China: the People Republic of China, not Taiwan (Formose ne
peut pas representer la Chine). He established Diplomatic Relations
and insisted that PRC takes its rightful seat among the 5 Permanent
members at the security council of UN.
3.
Helmuth Graf von Moltke: Feldmarshal & Chief of Staff of
Prussia's general staff knew that German unity could only be
achieved by a military strong Prussia and he was the architect of
Prussia's victories against Austria & France.
4. General El Shazly
The world's political climate has changed significantly since the 70's - USSR COLLAPSED ... GERMANY WAS REUNIFIED ... CHINA'S RISE TO SUPER ECONOMIC POWER STATUS ... INCREASING MEDIOCRITY OF WORLD LEADERS ... SYSTEMIC EXECUTIVE CORRUPTION ... MASS POLLUTION, ETC. But as regards, the MIDDLE EAST and in particular the Israeli-Arab Palestinian conflict, I firmly share the belief that this brilliant 1973 military victory, was turned into a political defeat, when Egypt was removed from the camp of resistance, to Israeli occupation of Arab lands to the camp of appeasement. This shift in the balance of power in the region and the vacuum created by the absence of Egypt, allowed Israel to continue trying to eliminate resisters one by one, starting with Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon again, Iraq again and now Syria and Libya. |
The
Coming War against Iran.
2/14/2006 |
Bush committed more crimes
than those against The Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
.
5/8/2004 |
|
FINALLY, THIS IS THE WAY HE SHOULD BE REMEMBERED
 |
AS CHIEF of STAFF, Standing on the right of Sadat, smiling over the battle plan operational map.
When the Chief of Staff was exonerated from his military position and sent to London as Ambassador of Egypt to UK, London duty station was ranked second in importance after Washington, DC. At the time, Moscow became the third important duty station. His subsequent duty station as Ambassador was Lisbona, this meant a severe degradation. A hero and potential Field Marshall ended up as civil servant in a descending track.
ReplyDeleteexcellent article and analysis.
ReplyDelete