Two years ago, the full-court press was on. President Obama faced a large contingent of military brass pushing for more troops in Afghanistan, especially Army Gen. David Petraeus, then commander of U.S. Central Command. It goes without saying that the general got nearly everything he wanted. Obama approved an increase of 30,000 troops, including more than 8,000 Marines, and they began deploying in December 2009. The assault on Marjah began just two months later, and the Marine Corps established a full forward-deployed Marine expeditionary force in June 2010. At the time, it was hard to find strong military advocates who…