The problem with artillery, and that was my original assignment in the service, is that in modern doctrine you either have a fixed position you've fortified like crazy or you have self-propelled guns, because you can't hide artillery pieces once they start shooting. A SP battery fires a a few volleys then dashes off somewhere else, rinse repeat. A fortified position you pretty much have to take out with a precision strike or direct attack because normal shells pick up about five feet of inaccuracy for every second of flight time. Most have a kill radius that makes that irrelevant against infantry but you really need to shell the fuck out of a fortified position to ensure one of the rounds lands in a place that will damage the gun or kill the crews or set off the ammo etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's a foregone conclusion who wins and the troop casualties rates for our side will be small compared to theirs but that artillery is not something we can easily neutralize in the opening hours of a conflict and that's the period when civilian casualties would be easiest to rack up.

Personally I basically agree. Coordinate a preemptive strike with nothing but the troops and readiness we can get going with a minimum risk of giving it away and just hit them first. As I said originally, I think we're delaying the inevitable and every year raises the cost.