“I would suggest that without the huge technological gap we enjoy, we would have gotten our asses kicked in any of these silly Middle Eastern conflicts.”
For the infantry, there is no “huge technological gap”. Perhaps our body armor helped with small arms fire as well as partially negating IEDs and EFPs.
Every trooper on the ground endured PLENTY of hardship!
History has shown that it's damn near impossible a foreign invader on equal terms with its opponent to maintain a long-term ground offensive in hostile territory. In some cases, even technological superiority can't make up for the "home field advantage" that one side enjoys (see the American Revolution for a good example of this).