Two Marines from the same platoon, good friends and combat veterans of the Iraq war, split on President Bush's decision to replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, mirroring public opinion on the six-year tenure of the defense secretary.

Though 58 percent of American adults favor a "fundamentally different approach in Iraq," according to a national poll conducted shortly before the midterm election, public opinion was more closely split on Rumsfeld. The survey by the national pollster Rasmussen Reports found that 43 percent said Rumsfeld should resign, and 36 percent disagreed.

Cormick Lynch, a 21-year-old Marine from South Kingstown, returned home from Iraq last month after serving since March in Fallujah.

He was hopeful that Mr. Bush's decision to replace Rumsfeld with former CIA chief Robert Gates would improve America's situation in Iraq.

"Looking at the larger picture, it's potentially a step in the right direction," Lynch said. "With the new Democratic majority [in Congress], and a new secretary of defense, my hope would be this could be a concrete, definitive moment to get past whatever happened in the past with what some people call the deceptions of us going into Iraq."

A new defense secretary, coming at a time of sweeping political change, "could create a bipartisan condition, for both parties to work together and to outline a path to success" in Iraq. "Hopefully with this new guy, Gates a clean slate, fresh face they can start being a little more productive, both parties."

He expects the soldiers serving in Iraq would experience at first "an uneasy feeling" at the change in command, "because the backbone of the policy has been Bush's [unshakable] confidence in his administration. And now, well, he's changing it. It's almost like admitting the errors that everybody already knows are there. Although it might be an uneasy feeling, it's kind of like coming to terms with reality."

U.S. troops "are working so hard over there to instill a democracy," Lynch said. "On Tuesday, the people spoke in America, a reflection of a true democracy and we both know if the Republicans had won a majority it probably wouldn't have happened. Rumsfeld probably wouldn't have stepped down. The people spoke, swept the House and consequently got a new secretary of defense."

Another Marine in Lynch's platoon, 35-year-old Jeff Clifford of Hanson, Mass., is in the other camp, and says that President Bush should have stayed with Secretary Rumsfeld.

"I don't think changing our tact this far into the war is a good idea," Clifford said yesterday. "I think we should continue our efforts to democratize Iraq because a democratized Iraq makes America safer. Democraciesdo not breed terrorists."

Clifford, a lawyer as well as a Marine, served with Lynch in Iraq. He also served in the first Gulf War, he said. Tuesday's election win for Democrats should not have affected who leads in the Pentagon, he said.

"I think that the president is still the elected leader of this nation and despite the fact that certain Democrats may have won [election] at lower levels, I don't think that should affect the selections made by a commander-in-chief regarding the leadership of our military." He praised Rumsfeld's "intestinal fortitude" to make "bold decisions."

"I wish that my president would respond more to his warriors and fellow Republicans than he does to the Democrats," he said.

Former Rhode Island National Guard Adjutant General Reginald Centracchio said yesterday he supports the change of leadership. "I think it had to be done," he said. "I wish [Mr. Bush] had done it a little sooner." Centracchio, who was at the head of the R.I. Guard when it suffered its first combat casualties in Iraq, said the current war strategy is "not working quickly enough" to return the country to Iraqis and bring Americans home. He is confident that fresh leadership will adjust to find the right strategy. Centracchio was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor on Tuesday, in a three-way race won by state Sen. Elizabeth Roberts, D-Cranston.