OK, I've been trying hard to stay out of this one, since in my time as a Marine we were still using "Deuce Gear" (as in 782). I have no experience with Alice Gear let alone FILBE, and therefore can't comment on their relative merits, or lack therof.

However I don't quite buy the implication that the US military is incompetent. In Vietnam, the whole reason the main force NVA came into the fight is because the Viet Cong guerillas had been largely defeated. Regarding the current conflicts, I've been reading a book about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, and the raid that killed him. Admiral William McRaven (head of JSOC) estimated that by the time they started planning that raid, he had been involved (either on the ground or in a command role) in several thousand successful raids on "guerilla fighters and rebels".

In the OBL raid they flew through the mountains at low level at night, evaded air defense systems, coped with a crashed helicopter, killed OBL, and escaped with his body. They did all this without loosing a single man or killing any civilians outside of OBL's compound. And had Pakistan tried to intervene and the raiders had to fight their way out, they had a quick reaction force staged nearby inside Pakistan, another larger force staged just across the border, and fighter jets ready to take on the Paki air force.

I think our miltary is exceedingly competent.

EDIT 2: McRaven is an admiral, not a general. Typing faster than I was thinking!