JM - big difference in whether USA soldiers would actually fire on an armed citizenry or whether an unarmed citizenry would ever rise. There is a good bit of modern evidence that fellow citizen soldiers will not attack citizens if the citizens have the means to make a fight of it. Do you have some reason to suppose that they use only IED's etc. in Iraq and no small arms? Do you suppose that Americans are incapable of making IED's if needed? Like it or not, mano-a-mano is still the common demonimator and that means small arms are still important.