No,that's what I KNOW. While being infantry and a Marine are in themselves pretty "special" things to be,the USMC is NOT a unconventional warfare unit in ANY respect. This includes Force Recon,which is just a highly trained recon unit no different from any US Army infantry recon unit. "Special Forces" units are units with unconventional warfare roles.
(1) The magnificent soldiers, sailors, airmen and - sorry Pete - Marines of our Special Operations community are members of highly trained, elite units. They are self-selecting volunteers - credit Criminal Number 18F for that quote - whose skills are unparalleled and unique. They are, therefore, very expensive in terms of the training that they have received and should be reserved for missions that require the utmost of dynamics. Sending them into Afghanistan or anywhere else to conduct conventional operations is a waste of their talents and completely contrary to their doctrine. (If I remember correctly there was a failed attempt in the late 80s to use the forward deployed element of 10th SFG in "company" sized operations).
(2) The Afghanis, who still remember their most recent encounter with a superpower, are not going to quake in their sandals over the prospect of the Green Berets landing in their AO. Remember, these guys stood off against Spetsnaz so they have no fear whatsoever of elite forces. Also, whereas it takes a couple million dollars and months, if not years, to train one of our operators it takes probably next to nothing to get some 16-year old zealot minimally trained and then sent into the fray. Operators, standing off against a 100-fold numerical advantage, would be at a distinct disadvantage.
(3) As proven during Vietnam, it will take an entire battalion dedicated to one mission to root out one chambered hidey-hole.
(4) Although Larry Lied is way off base with his "SF are cowards" theme, he is sort of on target with his assertion that our operators are being misused. Our leaders should recognize that this effort, even in Afghanistan, needs a proper balance of both conventional and unconventional forces to break the back of the Taliban, their "guest" and any forces that they could muster.
Finally, and this is an emotional issue, it seems that in our "return to normalcy" that Americans are beginning to do what Americans traditionally do: let this abomination fade into the back of our collective consciousness. The next few years will take an enormous amount of sacrifice, not in terms of the loss of a few bucks out someones IRA or 401K plan, but in spilled blood, our blood.
So the question is, are the baby boomers, the ones in charge now, prepared to send their sons - don't get me started femchicks - into battle with the possibility that some, no many, will come back in body bags?