As an ex soldier, I say 5.56mm sucks. 7.62mm is far superior, and with the right weapon you can achieve almost zero recoil and great accuracy and range with far superior stopping power.
My brother-in-law is all in for 5.56, and he killed a lot of Muzzies in Bush’s wars. You know what they say about brother-in-laws? Well, I don’t either, but he seems to know what he’s talking about.
Did you shoot the M14 then? Wasn’t that a great rifle?
I don’t even think you need zero recoil. A modern battlefield rifle needs that punch you like, be light enough to hump around, have a collapsing or folding stock for getting in and out of vehicles, some inherent accuracy and be able to withstand abuse. I have recently gotten to shoot an FN SCAR in 7.62 and like it a lot. I don’t know how it would do for a whole deployment to Afghanistan, but it is really pretty sweet. There is a lot of recoil compared to an M-4, but it is a real tack driver with a low power optic and ball ammo. Really nice with a suppressor.
Love the AR gas impingement or hate it, but a .308 scaled AR with adjustable gast block tuned to just enough gas to lock the bolt back on empty is a remarkably soft shooting rifle. Much softer than a M14.
Too bad the ammo weighs so much if you want to go to war with a decent load. Running with for-five loaded 20 round magazines will beat you to death. A 100 rounds of mouse ammo is nothing.