When I first heard about the battle I thought it was a ragtag bunch in trucks. But no, they had artillery, tanks, and other heavy equipment, so it was a serious threat to the ground forces. However, as is seemingly normal for Russia, Wagner and the Syrians had zero air defense or cover. It was basically a turkey shoot from the entire US close air support lineup.

A third excellent example is operation Paul Bunyan. No shots were fired, but the absolutely overwhelming show of force cowed north Korea into backing down and issuing the closest thing to an apology they're capable of.