Egypt ranks 12th overall on enthusiast website Global Firepower Index’s annual ranking of the world’s most powerful militaries, the best finish for a MENA player ahead of our eastern neighbor Israel, which ranks 16th. As usual, the index looks at raw numbers gathered from CIA.gov, Wikipedia and other publicly available data — and ignores training, ability to execute combined-arms operations, battle-readiness, technology as a force multiplier and the like. Makes for a nice listicle, though. The United States, China and Russia top the list, which is getting plenty of play in a certain type of national and international media.