It depends how you see Cobra. If you think of them as the incapable buffoons of the Sunbow cartoon, they're just cannon fodder. I like to think of them as rather nasty. Even your basic Trooper; he didn't come with a sniper's rifle for nothing! But I do subscribe to the power of numbers. Cobra is like the Borg: when there's a lot of them, they're overwhelming. Or when there's one in the shadows and you don't know it, they'll get the drop on you. Otherwise, they're no match for the Joes.

And I agree with giTom about the chaos theory. Cobra Commander gets his kicks out of strife and accumulation of wealth and power. Who needs to sit on the "throne of the world" when you run it from the shadows?