China agrees with you.
Oh, and don’t forget, USMC Amtracs are forbidden from water operations, even for training. They can only be used for “war emergency”.
The USMC will have no landing craft, no organic fire support, no naval gunfire support, and nothing but the highly unsuited F-35 moonpig for this “island hopping” campaign.
The USMC is being sodomized by Berger.
“China agrees with you.”
I doubt that very much.
China is not the naval power Japan was in 1941. Nor does China have all the islands that were either Japanese or Japanese controlled. Thus, in WWII our Marines were pivotal for our Pacific strategy, which was to slowly squeeze Japan by taking control of Pacific islands that could support airfields. Our Marines were absolutely essential for that purpose.
In any fight with China, such “island hopping” would not be so essential, as we already have assets in countries that are far closer to China than any of the islands were to Japan in WWII.
Under today’s strategy, our Marines are our initial assault and hold troops, and there are none better. More often than not, the Marines’ objectives would likely be targets somewhat removed from population centers. Once the objective is taken (say, an airfield or a strategic bridge), the larger US Army forces can come in and operate from there. In that respect, the idea is similar to what took place in WWII. Besides, the total active duty USMC manpower is only around 180,000.
The days of storming the beaches ala Peleliu, Tarawa, Okinawa, etc. I think are over.