The standard, straight leg, U.S. light infantry is hardly all that and a bag of chips. IMO, Brits, Canadians, and Austrailians are all far better trained, but don't have the same equipment.

We're soft in the US. We use our money and technology to win fights. And hey...It works! But if you hypothetically put one light infantry company against another without air support, indirect fire, ground based sensors...etc, in a single elimination death match, US (conventional) troops would probably make the top ten, but that's about it. We don't focus on marksmanship and tactics at the small unit level to the extent that a number of other Armies do. We don't have to, we've got smart bombs! I've said before, when I get to an OBJ as a light fighter, all I want to do is count teeth and eyeballs, I don't want to actually have to fight to take ground.

Now, Our SpecOps are superb, among the best, but again....we have more money than a lot of other people, so it's never a straight apples to apples comparrision.

The American military has two things going for it though that most other militaries don't have though in a hypothetical situation like the one described:

One: We're American. We (collectively) believe our own press and believe we're going to win. That's a powerful psycological tool though a bit of a double edged sword. A bit like a great boxer who has a glass jaw. When the fecal matter hits the fan, we tend to take things too hard. Like friendly body counts.

Two: We are one of the few Armies in the world where a lowly private will look around, see that everyone above him is dead, look at the other privates and say "Well, I've got the most time in service, looks like I'm in charge. Follow me!". And the other privates will actually do it!

We are empowered with a certain decision making ability at the enlisted level that most other Armies don't have. Hell, the Russian's only had radios that could transmit for officers. Enlisted soldiers only had recievers. That says something... As a squad leader in the American Army I exercised a pretty serious degree of autonomy and authority that a lot militaries don't get. When things don't go "by the books" (and they never do in combat) we believe that the small unit leader needs to make the right decision in the right time. Alot of conventional militaries have to pass the buck up the chain of command to see if there is going to be a fight or flight. And that's where our strength lies, not with the marksmanship, or discipline, or even physical fitness levels of our contemporaries, but in our ability to react on the fly.