Originally posted by Gunslinger
I still think this is a whole lot to do about nothing.
And for the post about Pre/post iraq. We do not have our entire army in Iraq. Yes it is wearing us down in manning and equipment but all of those can be replaced. What you can't put a price on is the lessons learned and the TACTICS developed. I'm not talking just about urban combat. I'm talking about how our military thinks moves and communicates as a whole.
The Germans didn't have their whole army on the eastern front in ww2 either.... but it was the reason they lost the war. In case you all missed it, we're committed to Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, and Europe still. Not the same situation as Germany, but it draws serious parallels. Our force projection is currently seriously in doubt, should it be needed elsewhere. The good news, is we're already in every corner of the world now, lol.
As for tactics... that makes me laugh. The only thing we're currently learning is at a squad level, urban combat, and that's because it's really something you cannot truly teach. As far as Army wide- You can't really learn much from an enemy thats tactics lend itself to such engagements as these.