Because Afghanistan was four hundred miles from the ocean, some at Central Command headquarters assumed that Marines could not be employed. As a CENTCOM planner explained, “We don’t have access from the sea anyway, and it’s going to have to be introduced by air, then let’s just introduce the Army….So, quickly we went away from—at least initially—consideration of the Marines.” This was a classic example of being trapped by an outdated way of thinking. The Marines don’t need to be anywhere near a beach to land from ships. We had long-range, air-refuelable helicopters and transport aircraft. We
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