But though I’m starting to sound like Robin Hanson lately, but here’s my own “X is not for the-thing-we-usually-associate-with-X”: “Bullets aren’t for killing.”

Most fire is suppressive fire, that is, sent in the direction of the enemy in an attempt to keep them pinned down behind cover and immobilized, with maybe a faint hope that occasionally one of the shots will hit somebody.

At that point, with rounds constantly blasting, you will either be trying to flank and maneuver to a position of superior lethal potential, or you will be calling for indirect fires or air support to rain down explosives on top of the enemy, frozen in their position by an unrelenting blizzard of bullets.

It’s the explosives that actually do most of the flesh-mangling and killing. The wave of bullets is mostly useful to buy time to deliver the bombs.