Tova:  I always preferred the M 14, it was the last military weapon that actually LOOKED like a rifle.  The AK is a masterpiece of simplicity, and you pointed out the biggest selling point, almost anyone can use it and be reasonably accurate.  The 7.62 X39 round is not as potent as the NATO 7.62 that the M 14 fires, but it is comparable to the M 16's 5.56.  But then, most old soldiers prefer their first rifle, only natural, I guess.

I don't remember the minutemen flying passenger jets into the heart of New Amsterdam...but maybe they would have, given the opportunity.

Doc:  The most popular theme in action novels this last year has been the return of the Evil Empire and the Cold War.  We thought we were being vigilant while a gangster in the Baathist Party took contol of his country.  A student activist who started off storming the American Embassy in 1979 now holds the reins of power in his country...and the son of a pot belly pig is now the big hog in his house.  And who knows who is waiting in the wings to show us how to ruin the world?  We may even have one hanging around here. 

Big Fat Daddy- I love reading your articles, you should write a book (if you haven't already)

Not meaning to dispute you, but a few points for debate perhaps-

The ragtag uneducated rube would most likely be Bin Laden, who is university educated. He also has a lot of experience fighting structured armies when he learned all about fighting the soviets on our dime in the 80's. So he is in fact very well educated, very experienced at fighting a large conventional force that has lots of hardware while his side is considerably under-equipped in comparison. The fancy toys that he had when fighting the soviets came from us, but now they've found other 'benefactors' in the form of sympathetic elements of various groups, and of course there are always plenty of folks from a host of nations who are more than happy to trade weapons for hard cash. So the role that the U.S played in supporting the mujahideen has been replaced with a variety of benefactors.

Something that's not heavily reported is that what we are doing right now in Afghanistan and Iraq is exactly what Al Queda planned. Back in 1998 Bin Laden actually laid out his plans in a press conference (he has something like a 20 year plan by the way and we're only on year 10) He stated that they were going to stage attacks against the States with the desire of provoking a "cowboy" response. Essentially getting us so angry that we start sending troops into muslim countries, which is exactly what hapenned after 9/11. This gave them the biggest opportunities while creating the most risk for the U.S- they WANT to fight us over there, because shipping costs are a lot less and they don't have to worry about elaborate plans to evade security for infiltrators. They've openly said it themselves that getting folks into western countries for terror attacks is a royal pain in the but. It takes years of planning, they have to get folks trained up and clean-cut enough to blend in long enough to do the job, then they have to scope out the area ahead of time, get channels for funding, accomodation, fake ID's, VISAS, blah blah blah.

With the U.S as foreign occupiers, they get the chance to shoot at Americans then run into civillian areas which then quite often get hit with airstrikes, thus causing more dissent against the Americans. I'm not defending BL at all, I'm just saying there is indeed method to his madness.

We can argue till the cows come home about how the war on terror is going, but obviously Bin Laden knows a thing or two because he's still alive, his organization is still thriving, and so is the Taliban. Last year was a record crop of opium in Afghanistan, a lot of which is going to fund their operations. I guess what I'm trying to say is we should never make the mistake of underestimating our enemies. Especially when they've managed to fight a war against the world's biggest superpower for almost 7 years running.

"The ragtag uneducated rube would most likely be Bin Laden, who is university educated. He also has a lot of experience fighting structured armies when he learned all about fighting the soviets on our dime in the 80's"

The ragtag uneducated rube is the fiery eyed idiot who straps up and lights himself off in a crowd.  I don't see UBL doing that, nor do I see any of his high ranking, educated, well trained associates. 

UBL, Hamas, Hezbolah, Army of God, and all the rest show the Muslim world how much they care about them by killing them by the thousands. 

The "cowboy" response UBL wanted, he got.  And it has cost him and his cohorts thousands of lives.  The problem is that they really don't care how many they lose as long as they irritate us.  UBL on the other hand has played right into our master plan which is to keep the fight out of the USA and provide us the opportunity to kill as many of them as possible.  That plan is working, too.

Let's not trot out the misconception that the Muj beat the Russian Army in Afganistan, either.  The Russians got caught up in the same burocratic crap there that we did in Vietnam.  And as you pointed out, the Muj would all be with their virgins now if not for the billions we spent supporting them.

Ahhh..."just like leaves in the autumn wind...we're driftin' "

Back to the point at hand...take all those raggedy-assed organizations and lump them together and line 'em up on a 12 man front and show me their tanks...no?...their air force?...their navy?...I DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THEM...I just don't respect them as any kind of "noble" adversary.  Taken as a whole, all of them wouldn't make a pimple on the Soviet Army's rump.  The Islaamic radicals who mean us harm are good for one thing and one thing only, no matter what kind of infrastructure they provide or medical services or water fountains...they are great "targets."

"Do soldiers really pine for the days of carefully lined up regiments and shiny parade uniforms? Or am I misreading you here?"

I started this off as a tongue-in-cheek kind of a thing...Mayday was a big deal for the Soviets and I was waxing nostalgic about life in NATO in the old days.  Despite how many times you hear it in the news, insurgent...terrorist...tactics will not win a war.  They couldn't beat us on the battlefield so they resort to a campaign designed to demoralize the soldiers, their families and their fellow countrymen.  We have been dicking around with this stupid situation in Iraq for years now and still haven't had as many killed in combat as were killed in  ONE DAY, 6th June 1944.  But if you listen to the way it is reported in the news, we are getting our asses handed to us every day.  Ain't so.

 "... no war was noble,"

This is a hard thing.  I have said many times that no one hates war as much as the soldiers who have to go do it.  I didn't ever say that there weren't any wars that needed fighting.  Sometimes it is just the only way to solve a problem.  I truly believe that going after the Muslim extremists was long overdue.  Did we do it right?  Could we have done it better?  Those answers come from way above my pay grade.  Did it need to be done? ABSOLUTELY.

Despite what is reported in the opinion-forming attempts in the news, most  of the soldiers I have talked to agree that it needed to be done, that it was the right thing to do, and that we are making a big difference.  And they want to be able to finish it.  That is our military for ya, they ARE a noble bunch.

I guess my point is really that the enemy we are fighting now are being elevated in the press to the level of "noble warriors".  We hear more often the phrase that we are facing foreign fighters and insurgents and all that does is give them status they don't deserve.  They are heartless terrorists, they kill indescriminately for the headlines...the fear...to clog the systems...and to bring glory to their cause.  They use any means they can.  They do not care how many of their own people they kill in the name of the cause.  They are loosely allied by their common belief in a distortion of Islaam that makes it okay to kill innocents but other that sharing post cards and headlines, they are not really a cohesive unit.

No one wants to go back to the cold war days, although it looks as if we may be headed that way.  Maybe it stems from the infuence of the little bit of native American blood in me...they believed a man could be judged by the greatness of his enemies.  Our current crop of enemies ain't for much.