Last week, the Washington Post reported that a bid by the Marine Corps to take responsibility for the primary U.S. military mission in Afghanistan generated a heated debate inside and outside the Pentagon, with some senior officers arguing that the Marines are ideally suited for the Afghan war while others contending that the move would undermine the counterinsurgency strategy there.

Yesterday, Inside Defense reported that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has nixed that proposal:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates today shot down Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway's proposal to shift Marines from Iraq to Afghanistan, which would leave the Army to handle operations in Iraq.

Gates dismissed the idea when asked about it at a Pentagon media briefing.

"I have pretty much literally, up until this point, heard one sentence about it, that they were thinking about it," he said. "So I would say that if it happens it will be long after I'm secretary of defense." …