I think you entirely missed the point of my previous post. Let's go over it again: You suggested that one the reasons the M4 is popular among the troops is that the people who die due to it's deficiencies aren't around to share their negative opinions of it. I responded that this is absurd because other soldiers notice when their buddies get killed due to the deficiencies of their weapons; it's not like that's something that's only noticed by the guy who actually gets killed. In fact, Sgt. Perales' quote supports this point; he saw his buddy get killed because of an M4 stoppage, and therefore has a negative opinion of it. So your "those who have something to complain about are probably dead" argument doesn't explain why surveys reveal that the M4 is popular among the troops. If lots of soldiers really were dying due to M4/M16 stoppages, the troops would notice and the surveys would reveal that many troops are unhappy with the weapon. Sgt. Perales' story is moving, but I hope you know enough to realize that solitary anecdotes don't prove anything one way or the other about the big picture.
I have no military experience. I don't think it's particularly relevant, since as we all know, military experience provides no immunity against being bone-headed, being obstinately wedded to baseless opinions, or just being plain dumb or uninformed.
EDIT: Speaking of special operations units and the weapons they use, the SAS has pretty much had it with the L85A2 which you praised earlier, and has switched to an AR platform (Diemacos). Same is true of other British special operations units like the SBS. And also, Delta Force is still using an AR platform, albeit one with a gas-piston upper.
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