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What an excellent LINK.

So this, borrowed from it:

"Jordan
spent 7 months at "Camp Blue Diamond" in Ramadi. Aka: Fort Apache. He
saw and did a lot and the following is what he told me about weapons,
equipment, tactics and other miscellaneous info which may be of
interest to you. Nothing is by any means classified. No politics here,
just a Marine with a bird's eye view's opinions:

1) The M-16
rifle : Thumbs down. Chronic jamming problems with the talcum powder
like sand over there. The sand is everywhere. Jordan says you feel
filthy 2 minutes after coming out of the shower. The M-4 carbine
version is more popular because it's lighter and shorter, but it has
jamming problems also. They like the ability to mount the various
optical gunsights and weapons lights on the picattiny rails, but the
weapon itself is not great in a desert environment. They all hate the
5.56mm (.223) round. Poor penetration on the cinderblock structure
common over there and even torso hits cant be reliably counted on to
put the enemy down. Fun fact: Random autopsies on dead insurgents shows
a high level of opiate use.

2) The M243 SAW (squad assault
weapon): .223 cal. Drum fed light machine gun. Big thumbs down.
Universally considered a piece of shit. Chronic jamming problems, most
of which require partial disassembly. (that's fun in the middle of a
firefight).

3) The M9 Beretta 9mm: Mixed
bag. Good gun,
performs well in desert environment; but they all hate the 9mm
cartridge. The use of handguns for self-defense is actually fairly
common. Same old story on the 9mm: Bad guys hit multiple times and
still in the fight.

4) Mossberg 12ga. Military
shotgun: Works well, used frequently for clearing houses to good
effect.

5)
The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 Nato (.308) cal. belt fed machine gun,
developed to replace the old M-60 (what a beautiful weapon that was!!).
Thumbs up. Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts 'em down.
Originally developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more are
being dismounted and taken into the field by infantry. The 7.62 round
chews up the structure over there.

...................................:

7)
The .45 pistol: Thumbs up. Still the best pistol round out there.
Everybody authorized to carry a sidearm is trying to get their hands on
one. With few exceptions, can reliably be expected to put 'em down with
a torso hit. The special ops guys (who are doing most of the pistol
work) use the HK military model and supposedly love it. The old
government model .45's are being re-issued en masse.

8) The
M-14: Thumbs up. They are being re-issued in bulk, mostly in a modified
version to special ops guys. Modifications include lightweight Kevlar
stocks and low power red dot or ACOG sights. Very reliable in the sandy
environment, and they love the 7.62 round.

....................:

10) The M24 sniper rifle:
Thumbs up.
Mostly in .308 but some in 300 win mag. Heavily modified Remington
700's. Great performance. Snipers have been used heavily to great
effect. Rumor has it that a marine sniper on his third tour in Anbar
province has actually exceeded Carlos Hathcock's record for confirmed
kills with OVER 100.

............................:

I cant help
but notice that most of the good fighting weapons and ordnance are 50
or more years old!!!!!!!!! With all our technology, it's the WWII and
Vietnam era weapons that everybody wants!!!! The infantry fighting is
frequent, up close and brutal. No quarter is given or shown."

This is why we speak about the 9mm being perhaps marginal in a real fight. It isn't just some crank (me) raving off of his soapbox, into the night.

When I go off on this stuff, I am just trying to get some much needed attention (by making extreme, blanket, know-it-all, get a guy punched-out by a vet statements, and jumping up and down like an idiot, etc. Hey, it's a noble cause, and showbiz works) to what our predecessors really did learn from what they used, to accomplish some pretty important things with. I get all worked up just to counter so many questionable beancounter, make our allies comfortable decisions and gunwriter-espoused, now axiomatic principles, which can easily get one killed, when the reasoning hits the unforgiving pavement.