This all seems pretty standard.

The Col. being forced to retire is necessary as to completely turn a blind eye to something like that when it gets out would be pretty much an endorsement from the establishment. The Col. was obviously acting on excellent information, however if there was a precedent for action like that going unpunished, there would be many cases of that sort of strategy being incorrectly applied.

He simply sacrificed himself to save one of his men, albeit he sacrificed himself to the establishment.

I can't see this playing out any differently to how it did.