Ken:

good post; and agree.

I too think a well trained combat outfit can do many, many missions of different types. My point, and this has been beat around pretty well in other threads, is that the most flexible and adaptable combat units are ones trained primarily in the higher end of the fighting spectrum because in that training they would have honed their basic combat skills (regardless if they are infantry, armor, cavalry, etc). What I just said is an ideal, an organizing principle of sorts, and not, NOT a call to stop coin training for units that are deploying so that they can train on hic. But at some point if we are able to wind down in Iraq these questions will start to arise.

The interesting thing about Belavia's book if you get the chance to read it is that he writes from an infantryman's perspective in urban combat and acutally is explicitly dismissive of armor at various points in the book, but when he describes fighting in houses at the end of the engagement there always seems to be a bradley outside either breaking the wall down or pumping rounds wherever needed.

If I had a dollar for your combat experience relative to mine I would be a rich man.

v/r

gian