From playing some COD4 missions, and glancing through MW2 walkthrough/gameplay videos on YouTube, I have composed the following list of things I have learned about modern warfare:

1. Helicopters with players in them always manage to land safely when hit by weapons fire, while every other helicopter in the whole world, without exception, explode in giant fireballs, even when hitting the ground softly (which they more often than not do).

2. All US and UK servicemen wear an invisible windshield in front of their eyes, that somehow manages to get splattered with blood no matter where on the body they get hit.

3. People on the Earth's surface cannot see projectiles in the sky on a cloudless night, and require astronauts to look down at them from orbit, from a much greater distance.

4. Cruise missile-born EMPs are exotic weapons which take out targets very selectively - all electronics are disabled, people are unharmed, satellites are ripped apart, and space stations explode in huge fireballs.

4b. An astronaut can withstand explosive forces strong enough to blow up the ISS, but dies if hit by a sheet of metal.

5. The Russians fail to take down Makarov's terrorist cell in their own country, but can muster the manpower and ability to invade the USA and make it all the way into the heart of the North American continent in a single day.

5b. A single airport massacre is grounds enough for the Russian federation to launch a full-scale invasion on the USA.

6. Ropes and other safety gear is not necessary when climbing 100 meters tall ice cliffs.

7. The bad guys have an infinite amount of men even on isolated oil rigs, and yet somehow contrive to lose every single battle.

8. If the US infiltrated a Russian terrorist group with a highly-trained special operations soldier, he or she would gleefully partake in the slaughter of civilians instead of simply killing the terrorist he was sent to dispatch. The US would then spend the rest of the game trying to hunt the man down.

8b. A US serviceman at the site of an airport-wide massacre will be told his mission has failed if he shoots the terrorists in the back, because it's the duty of US servicemen to assist terrorists in shooting Russian air travellers.

8c. While one would anticipate that a mole infiltrating a Russian terorrist group would try to blend in, it turns out that not only do the terrorists work out his true identity - the police forces finding the body will also instantly realize it's an American. At least, this is what I think happened, because...

9. ...displaying wire-frame renderings of military hardware during a briefing is more important than helping the player understand just what the #@әÆ‼ډ! is actually going on in the game world.

10. "fox 3, fox 3" means "me and my wingman are firing two missiles each on these here ground targets".

10b. Ground targets are dealt with using air-to-air missiles (which somehow acquire a "good tone" on said ground targets).

10c. While you never, ever hear what fighter pilots say on their channel (and why the hell would you?), the pilots apparently deemed it important for the player to hear them shout "guns guns guns" when firing their cannons, and so broadcast this on the player's frequency.