The US is capable of fighting as a heavyweight, but after more than a decade of preoccupation with counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army had let its conventional war-fighting capabilities atrophy a bit.
Among these deficiencies were increased weight, reduced ammunition supply and rate of fire, and loss of fighting capability if one of the turrets was disabled.
Americans should insist that they also explain how they will repair the damage President Bush has done to America's intelligence-gathering capabilities in the name of fighting terrorism.
While longer persistence in fights allows a better assessment of fighting abilities, it also increases fighting costs.
"Rebel commanders had a sensible strategy of fighting a war of attrition that matched their capabilities.
But this is a less costly strategy that will hopefully allow the attrition of fighting on multiple fronts to degrade the group's conventional capabilities systematically.
"Recurrent waves of fighting".
