Last month, Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, commander of Marine forces in Afghanistan, presented a surprisingly rosy description of the battlefield to reporters at the Pentagon in a teleconference from his office at Camp Leatherneck. Improvements were ongoing, he said. Progress was being made. The insurgency had a “financial crisis” on its hands, and the Corps had verified reports of “Taliban thugs” being beaten by civilians and chased away from villages, he said. Mills took a small handful of questions from reporters during the press conference. Reporters — particularly those who had embedded with Marine units this year — walked away…