Peleliu

Those last episodes also beg the question of whether or not the Peleliu campaign was worth the effort, don't they? With the cost as high as any other in the entire Pacific war, did the action need to take place? Could the island have been "jumped" and allowed to sit, cut off and unsupplied, until such time as the Navy and AAF felt they could afford to bomb it into shiny fuzzed glass at their leisure? I mean, honestly... an entire reinforced Marine Division (the 1st) and an entire reinforced Army Infantry Division (the 81st) taking more than 60 days to do what the Navy and Marine commanders said would take four?

The airfield was all but destroyed to the Japanese (it took two weeks and more heavy equipment than the Japanese had to fix it for the Marines and Army in Dec of '44)... so I'm forced to ask the question: Why the effort and expense in Sept-Oct of '44?