Reply #15: after reading other OPs by Tom, I can assure everyone that treestar is correct...

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Tom is consistently sensitive to the plight of our troops and returning veterans. Let's move on with some bigger fish to fry. If you made gigantic profits from selling the government M-16 rounds would you want them to be used sparingly or is corporate philosophy the more sold the merrier?

In boot-camp, though I would likely never use it in the Navy as Tom did on several swift-boat occasions, I trained on the M-16. After boot-camp, I discovered that anyone hiding behind a cinder-block wall was in a world of hurt, if a soldier with an M-16 drew a bead on that wall. It rips walls of concrete and cinder-block apart in seconds. Stone and brick are quite another matter, regardless of the rounds you use. Even soldiers with no reasonable training in marksmanship, will certainly gain shooting skills after deployment in combat for the FOUR TOURS OF DUTY many of our finest are currently conscripted to in IRAQ. I strongly suspect what dulls their shooting skills is the massive doses of prescribed benziods they take, which fends off combat-fatigue that such lengthy stints in country induce. With reduced responses and perceptions, our troops are literally dying for political reasons because this highly profitable war for a few, will end after the draft begins.