[95th Rifleman]

I've alwys worried about how much we rely on shiny toys and artillery, the west has a great pyschological hang up regarding casualties. Our tactics are based around the use of massed artillery and air power to eliminate the enemy on the ground so that the actualy ground combat becomes little more than a mopping up exercise.

In the first Gulf war this strategy was amazingly effective against poorly disciplined, mostly static Iraqi positions.

In a situation where the enemy has effective air defence and artillery reserves for counter-battery fire, I do wonder about the west's capability to engage effectively.

We must remember that the only reason the cold war stayed cold was because both sides did not feel they could win quickly enough or decisvely enough before nukes created th MAD scenario. If either side, for one minute, thought they could pull it off, they would of gone in hard and fast.

The proxy wars of the 80's and 90's gave the west an unreal sense of superiority as they made short work of poor quality soviet export designs. We conveniantly forget the times when more advanced soviet tech came into play (such as the Israeli merkava losses to advanced soviet ATGMs).