For me it would depend. In an urban combat environment with close shots I would take a M16/M4 type rifle for the larger magazine capacity.
If out in rural areas I would pick a M14 or 7.62 scoped bolt rifle. The rural squads need some 50 cal Barrets too.
I’ve read that the M16 would jam a lot from the dust in Vietnam and that the AK was better for that type of war.
But since I know #### about military weapons, maybe some with actual knowledge can chime in :)
I’m good with my M1A, CQB and as a long distance cordless drill...
The defense department was convinced by evidence that enemy battle deaths did not come from “aimed riflery.” Col Jeff Cooper has written on this subject in the Cooper Commentaries. He writes of a small number of battles, two during the Boer War, that were decided by aimed riflery.
One in ten soldiers or leathernecks will be able to keep cool enough to use aimed marksmanship in battle. The rest will spray and pray. The decision then is to identify those few individuals and put them on the squad automatic weapons. The rest of the grunts get something that makes noise and has no recoil.
The grunts’ job is to just throw out a field of lead while somebody calls in the big stuff.
I do not know whether any of their thinking is correct, but I do believe that a decision or policy of the bureaucracy of the defense department should have no bearing whatsoever on anything that a real rifleman might decide to use.