Call it a gut feeling from a 21 year Army vet, CentCom would not order the unit out if the only concern was that the Marine unit was too combat effective. But that's just me and I don't know any more about the situation than what I've read here.
You show me an Army general who is not afraid to cover his own ass and I'll show you a Highly trained Marine unit that is not combat effective.
Too bad Kearney wasn't there so he could have gotten his @ss shot off. then again if he had been there he probably would have called in an airstrike to wipe them all out and then it would have been OK.