If Berger wants to sell his plan then he should be honest. He's taking the USMC back to pre-WW2 "Marine defense battalions" & killing other roles to do it...

 

155 mm Long Tom gun "Scorpion" of the 4th Marine Defense Battalion at Barakoma Airfield on Vella Lavella in the South Pacific.

Berger's plan is in trouble.  While it's obvious that the "defense establishment" was not at all fond of Trump, he at least kept them awash in cash.

That money train isn't slowing down.

It's hitting a wall at high speed.  An economy in trouble, massive unemployment, sluggish growth, an ongoing covid crisis and the defense dept is about to be ravaged of funding.

Right in the middle of the most massive re-organization of the USMC in its entire history.

Even worse?

No one is buying what the Commandant is selling.

Don't get me wrong.  The various "sycophants" that pleasure him at his wargames and meetings are doing nothing but lavishing praise on this thing.  I'm talking about the rank and file Marines that go out and do the Marine-thing everyday that's not buying this thing.

But let's give Berger the benefit of the doubt.

Let's assume that the top secret wargames are actually telling him this is the way (not fictional non-sense that is trying to find a bloodless way of engaging a peer foe on the high seas without massive loss of men and material), then what does he need to do?

First he needs to call this thing what it is.

He's rebuilding Marine Defense Battalions.

Second he needs to be honest and state clearly that this monstrosity will only be viable in the Pacific.

Third he needs to admit that he is sacrificing long fought for independence for this concept and that the loss is worth it.

Last but not least.

He needs to get off his high horse and admit that all the smart boys could be wrong (God knows they've fucked up concept after concept for as far back as I can remember) and at least retain a bit of capability to be able to actually fight on land.

Make no mistake though.

Berger has his fangs dug into the floorboard and he won't yield an inch.

Which is why he will ultimately fail.

Change agents always fail because they don't realize the necessity of getting buy in from those they lead.  Berger doesn't seem to care which is why he's losing.