Oh, don't worry, I've read on here, and heard at the range, that the reason we aren't "winning" is because we don't use the AK/M-14/M-1/1873 Pattern Musket.
And, by the same token, I've read that my complaints about the M-4 aren't valid because I wear a stetson instead of a girl scout hat.
The rifle is an important tool to the Soldier, yes, and this thread has been vwery interesting, especially for the history to be learnt in reading it, but sometimes, we as the gun culture, and Americans, at least in my opinion, tend to romanticize the rifle a bit more than history bears out.
Hell, I'm guilty of it too.