I'm sure this idea has been floated by folks both smarter and much more experienced than me, but I can't remember an SWC thread on it. With the ongoing debate about how to prepare the ground forces for both the full spectrum of small wars and the threat of major conventional war, how about letting the Marines focus on small wars, with maybe amphibious/forced entry as a secondary field? I'm in the Van Creveld camp, that nuclear weapons have virtually ended the threat of great power war, but I think it's a small camp, and even if he's right there are plenty of other possibilities for conventional war (Korea). The Army could maintain it's greatly enhanced small wars knowledge, but make that a secondary mission, in the background but not forgotten.

Letting the Marines focus on small wars would also seem to do away with the need for an Army Advisory Corps, the Marines could carry out that function, maybe dispersed more widely throughout Marine ground combat arms. If we're not listening to Steve Metz and we get caught in another big small war like Iraq, the Marines would be there first and serve as mentors of sorts to Army troops joining the fight.

Thoughts, negatives?