why did the U.S. Marines (an amphibious force) fight in Afghanistan (a landlocked country)?
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To simplify the other stated points, which cover the reasons pretty well: The Marines functionally are a 2nd Army. AKA they blow shit up and hold territory, the primary use cases for any given military force. The USMC is designed for expeditionary warfare, a mission set which evolved out of their amphibious/naval warfare roots.
At any given time, some Marines are floating about on Navy ships ready for rapid deployment. The ships sail to the nearest coast of wherever they feel like invading/humanitarian aiding, the expeditionary part. The Marines disembark (the amphibious part) and do their thing for up to 15 days, by which point they are hopefully not dead and are either finished or reinforced.
When not on the boats, Marine units function very much the same as an equivalent Army unit and so are largely interchangeable as far as the big picture Generals are concerned.
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