Bondo, your lack of military experience is duly noted, therefore I will cut you some slack on your lack of basic military knowledge/common sense. The plain and simple fact is that no one that I know of could possibly draw a pistol and successfully engage a target faster than I can bring my M4 or Mossberg to my shoulder and engage the same target. There are at least five extra steps to drawing and firing the pistol. You have to release the grip of your rifle, reach towards your holster, disengage at least one, most likely two rentention devices, draw the pistol upward, align the sights, swipe off the safety and fire. And you are doing all of this just to fire a round that is inferior to the one you have immediately available.
Your weapon will already be at the low ready if you are doing a dismounted patrol. How much easier is it to bring your rifle/shotgun to your shoulder, align the sights (depending on distance, may not even be completely neccessary(sp?), swipe the selector switch to fire and pull the trigger?
And do me a favor and save your assinine rhetoric about how today's troops are so much softer than those of yesterday. That is absolute crap. It is man's tendecy to compare himself favorably to his replacement. It makes people feel good to say they were tougher, faster, better shooters, etc than the people who are doing the job today. The fact is that the US military of today is the finest group of warriors ever assembled. Our training, technology, and ability to gain intel far surpass most previous and current armed forces around the world. It is a simple matter of adaptation, and I intend no offence to my fellow veterans from previous wars. They gained the knowledge that we used to improve ourselves.
You seem rather young, and are most likely still in some level of school, so do yourself a favor. Pay very close attention in your history classes. Replacing the 1911 had nothing to do with modern soldiers being recoil sensitive. We switched to a NATO round, the 9mm, to be logisticaly compatible with NATO forces around the world. Tell me how in the world today's soldiers are more recoil sensitive than those of previous wars when studies have shown that the average American is actually larger than the average American of years gone by?
Not intending to hurt your feelings, just trying to educate you a bit. If you ever reach for a pistol with a rifle in your hand, you aren't likely to go home that night. And, if you keep passing off bad info like the recoil sensitivity issue, someone is going to come along and really hurt your feelings.
Also, rest assured the "Warrior Spirit" is alive and well! We continue to fight as hard as we can, where ever we are needed, as long as we can. You have been watching too much liberal media, and once again you haven't checked your history books. There have been spineless, gutless detractors as long as there have been wars. The difference between then and now is that everyone of those disgruntled, opionated naysayers has access to a blog and a media outlet. You hear more about it now because we live in a world where media technology thrives and anyone can get their opinion out to everyone.
