>>18
That's true. Regrettably, competent soldiers will be the first to die on the battlefield. Once you run out of them, as you quickly will in any protracted conflict, it's back to the cannon-fodder. :(
I don't think it's an accident that US soldiers don't compare favorably to other Western countries. The US army is still designed for big wars, and therefore tends to emphasize the skill of any one soldier less. Other Western armies aren't, so they emphasize the skill of individual soldiers more.
That's my theory anyway.