[Nasrudith]

The war has long been internalized in "Banana Republic" or "Resource Cursed" situations with coups. It has the same element of fear of being killed. Of course that also has different definitions of "poorly run" and "strong". "Not funneling enough oil money into the military's pockets." could count as "poorly run" and "military well under control" as "strong".

Dictators tend to have shitty armies because they depend upon buying loyalty and/or setting up self-sabotaging hierarchies beneath them to stay on top. They are good enough to oppress their own populace just fine but tend to get their asses handed to them when they ill-advisedly attempt external use.