[Barrett]

Matt: thanks for confirming my oratory. "People are smart when they agree with you!" I recall a discussion with some Belgian tankers many years ago, saying that they admired the W German forward-deployed positions, rather than sitting back to absorb some of the shock of a Soviet tank army churning through the Gap--even if it meant their own life expectancy in combat was measured in minutes.
Airpower perspective: this story made the rounds a few years before The Wall came down. It's Day 12 or whatever, and the WarPact CO looks out the window of NATO HQ in Brussels, where the T-72s and BMPs are now parked. He is literally eating his opposite number's lunch. Peeling a banana, he turns to his chief of staff and asks, "Tell me, Yuri, who do you suppose won the air war?"
Moral being: airpower wouldn't have decided WW III unless it went nuke--the Soviets would have attacked in the worst weather possible, and with their numerical superiority we could have gained a 6-1 kill-loss ratio and still had a tie in the air.
Tongue in cheek humor: American definition of "tactical nuke": any nuclear detonation in Germany.