For instance, did we know a Marine colonel had been relieved of his command in the aftermath of the al Kut battle?
On the morning of Tuesday, April 1, the Army and Marines moved out.I've been going back and forth all morning, trying to finish this article. I think it's well worth a read:Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, pulled an April Fool's trick on the Iraqis around Kut, the strategic city guarding the eastern approach to Baghdad. The 1st Marine Regiment moved north along Highway 7 to the southern edge of Kut in a feint to make the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard think that was where the attack would originate. But at the same time, the 5th and 7th Marine regiments that had appeared to be heading for Baghdad instead circled back and slammed into the Iraqi rear from the west, shredding what few units were left after days of airstrikes.
After the battle, Mattis, who has a reputation of being extremely aggressive, abruptly fired the commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, Col. Joe W. Dowdy. As part of the feint, it was Dowdy's job to nudge his troops forward just enough to draw Iraqi artillery fire so that U.S. warplanes could locate and destroy the batteries. Those who were in the combat operations center that night kept waiting for the regiment to draw the Iraqi fire, but it never did, Marine officers recalled.
Another Marine officer said the problems at Kut were "the final straw" in a series of incidents over three days that had caused Mattis to decide that Dowdy should no longer command the regiment. Mattis never publicly explained Dowdy's dismissal, and the colonel has not commented. "He's a great Marine, just not the right man for the time," Conway said later. "The MEF [Marine Expeditionary Force] is better with Joe doing something else."