Is The US Marine Approach Towards Counter Insurgency In Afghanistan The Right One?

At Afghan Outpost, Marines Gone Rogue Or Leading The Fight Against Counterinsurgency? -- Washington Post

DELARAM, AFGHANISTAN -- Home to a dozen truck stops and a few hundred family farms bounded by miles of foreboding desert, this hamlet in southwestern Afghanistan is far from a strategic priority for senior officers at the international military headquarters in Kabul. One calls Delaram, a day's drive from the nearest city, "the end of the Earth." Another deems the area "unrelated to our core mission" of defeating the Taliban by protecting Afghans in their cities and towns

U.S. Marine commanders have a different view of the dusty, desolate landscape that surrounds Delaram. They see controlling this corner of remote Nimruz province as essential to promoting economic development and defending the more populated parts of southern Afghanistan.

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My Comment: In the entire scheme of things, the US Marine presence in Afghanistan is just a drop in the ocean. While it is certainly reassuring that they have achieved a certain measure of success, they have not fundamentally changed the strategic balance and direction of the war. The fact that inter-service rivalries are coming to the forefront will only further be a guarantee that many of the marines tactics and methods will be skimmed over.