Is it just me, or is anyone else a bit tired of how everything is a carbine now? Yes, I know the M4 is now the standard issue in the Army and that naturally drives the tastes of the "tacticool" civilian shooting community, but I'm just a bit weary of how every AR you see for the past several years is a carbine.
I just want a plain, KISS rifle that is a close approximation of the M16A1 or A2, with the original 20 inch barrel. I don't think anyone even makes complete rifles like this anymore, apparently. Everything I can find is a carbine with rails on every millimeter of it. It's about enough to just make me want to give up on the whole AR peashooter and just go to something in .308 like the M1A or FAL.
I believe the Commandant of the Marine Corps was quoted as saying, in response to a question about the Corps issuing the M16A4 rather than the Army's M4, "the carbine is an extension of the pistol, not a reduction of the rifle".