Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
Yes there are the faint hearted among them that may even be secretly happy that these constraints are in place. But you can be assured that there are plenty plus US and Brit kids as young as we were back then who would be up for a modern fire force version even more violent due to the weapons and stuff available today.
True -- and not just the kids, many of the older people as well. However, I think you answered your own question:
What one needs to sift through at this stage is whether respective militaries are champing at the bit under these political restrictions or are at least some happy and secretly thankful to take cover behind these restrictions?
Some of the latter, many of the former. So it has always been. In every Army.
People don't believe it today when you say you called in an 19 gal Frantan (naplam) strike at 20m, then with a 37mm SNEB strike the "twirler" lands safely behind you. The yes then the 5m away 20mm gunship strike puts some shrapnel in the ass of one of your riflemen from a tree burst.
A lot of folks from Viet Nam can recall Nape right on top of their position and 2.75 Rockets spewing Nails at them. They'll all believe you.
Ken has some wise words on this. I'll try to translate into English for you. Correctly he states that Rhodesians were fighting for the very existance of their country, their way of life and everything they held dear. It was the end game. That is why Rhodesian 18 year olds were able to pull enormous reserves of courage and endurance and innovation from within to achieve such results against seemingly impossible odds. This is not the same for the troopies in Afghanistan.
That's noty exactly what I said. In your case the NATION was committed to an existential war. In our case today that is not true; quite the opposite, it's a war many object to and that affects what the Congress, the civilian policy makers and even the senior military leadership can do. The troop capability to do good things is little diminished and that only insofar as western society has changed in the last 40 years.

The kids will do what they're allowed to do and chafe because they cannot do more.

Forty years? Wow! you're old...