&gt; Tell that to the poorly armed fighters in Afghanistan who kicked out the Soviets<p>You mean the ones that the US and Pakistan were arming, including with weapons optimized to counter the main heavy weapons used against them (particularly Stinger missiles to counter Russian attack helicopters)?<p>&gt; and the North Vietnamese who kicked out the Americans.<p>The North Vietnamese were not only <i>massively</i> supplied by outside powers, but both China (before their falling out with the USSR) and the Soviet Union <i>directly intervened</i> in Vietnam -- as, to a lesser extent, did North Korea.