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Agree with you. Do you think they will tell why? That would be a precedent. I think that Bush has handled this exceptionally good. It may end restoring people's trust in the government.

More importantly, at least right now, the troops would continue to have faith in the command structure. If they think there is a problem and officers weren't being held accountable, morale would come crashing down.

This is the First Marines, running just ahead of Third LAR. They are currently stuck in the mud and had to stop moving forward. According to *this news item, Dowdy had already been relieved and replaced with no fanfare, sent back to Kuwait. It might well have been that he cared more about his people than take stupid chances at Nasiriyah and the river crossing and did his job too well. No good deed goes unpunished. Marines break things and kill.
I've heard some definite grumbles about all units in the First not getting any mail at all from home for quite some time even after it had been promised twice and not delivered. He might have staged a bitching session that makes the rest of his record moot.
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*Baghdad - A US commander who led a fierce push by marines through southern Iraq towards Baghdad was relieved of his post on Friday for an undisclosed reason, a US military spokesperson told AFP.

Colonel Joe Dowdy, commander of the Marines First Regimental Combat Team, was removed as head of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force's Regimental Combat Team 1, said public affairs officer Steven Schweitzer.

"He was responsible for the regiment until three hours ago," Schweitzer said.

Officials at the US Central Command (Centcom) war headquarters in Qatar declined comment.

"At this time we have no information about anyone being relieved of command," Centcom spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Joshua Rushing said.

#Colonel flown back to Kuwait

But another senior officer, who declined to be named, said a replacement for Dowdy had been announced and a helicopter had arrived Friday with orders to ferry the colonel back to Kuwait.

Dowdy was in command of 5 000 men and women and had led the regiment's advance through southern and central Iraq, including a bloody passage through the Euphrates River town of Nasiriyah.

He was described as a popular commander who kept casualties down in leading his troops to some 130km from Baghdad by Friday.