MAJOR GENERAL ANTONIO M. TAGUBA, US Army, CF

1234567891011121314151617181920212223Q. So you had no confidence in Dinenna either, the S-3?Essentially you had a troubled Battalion.A. I did. I talked to Colonel Pappas. I said, “Do you have alieutenant colonel that you can give me to run the Battalion that’sunder-- you know, the security detainee operation is in MI.Q. Did you have anybody at the rear detachment beside Coulter?A. I had Colonel Coulter. That was the only lieutenantcolonel I had.Q. Okay. So all those troubles seemed to percolate----A. I told Major Cavalarro, I said to him, “This is not myfirst choice, but you are ready to do this.” And-- and he said, “Youknow, if you ask me to go out there, I’ll go and take command of theBattalion, but the operations piece will suffer.”Q. From what I understand, General Karpinski, you were in adilemma here, but, in other words, are you indicating at leastinsinuating that you have a bunch of officers that are either notcompetent, or incompetent, or not qualified, or unwilling to takecommand?A. In the----Q. In support of the mission----A. In the Battalion----Q. ----for the Battalion.A. ----or overall?51