Meyers: General Saleh NOT vetted and NOT in command

Fox News Sunday w/ Chris Wallace | 05/02/04 | Richrad Meyers

[Amerigomag]

General Richard Meyers just emphasized to Chris Wallace that General Saleh, former Republican Guard Commander, who has been announced by the international media as the commander of an Iraqi force inserted into Fallujah to quell the violence is, in fact, not in command of anything in Fallujah and has not been vetted by our forces in theater.

Meyers , in fact, left me with the impression that he was distancing himself from Saleh. Meyers seemed to backtrack emphatically when Wallace mentioned the rumors that Saleh had command troops that persecuted the Kurds in northern Iraq. Prevous reports posted on this forum had announced that Saleh had been vetted, sourcing American officials in Iraq.

What the hell is going on? Typically poor reporting of Meyers having second thoughts as time passes and critism mounts?

[eclectic]

Fog of War. Plenty of fog

[LS]

McInerny and many of the other Fox generals had said this was a logical move and probably one that was overdue---putting some Iraqi units in these places. The term "in command" is splitting hairs, in that Saleh is UNDER the U.S. forces (probably the Marines), so true, he is "in command" only at a certain level.

[tkathy]

Is Meyers in charge? He comes across as a polical weinie to me.

[gunnedah]

How do you trust those who were under Saddam's wing when you can even trust most of the Democrats in Congress?

[Batrachian]

This general should be in charge - after we take his family hostage and hold them to insure he does what we want.

Of course we won't do that, but sometimes I wonder. Are we too nice to win a war with a ruthless enemy that stops at nothing?

[Quigley]

Is anyone in charge should be the question. Things went far better under Tommy Franks.

[Alberta's Child]

General Saleh is not in charge . . . Baghdad Bob is.

[oceanview]

the media strategy of CENTCOM and even the Pentagon is very poor, to not be able to give a unified message regarding what is going on allows the media to spin and spin and give the impression that everything is spiraling out of control.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Transcript: Gen. Richard Myers on 'Fox News Sunday'

[Southack]

"MYERS: Yes. You know, we want Iraqis to do this work, and that's — this is a microcosm of what we want to happen all over Iraq.

The reports that the Marines have pulled back, not true. The Marines are still where they've been. The Marines are prepared to follow through on this action if they have to. It is preferable if we have Iraqis doing it, and it's preferable that we work with Iraqis.

This force, by the way, does not seem to be staying in Fallujah. They're going to do their job, and then we're going to turn it over to the Iraqi police, Iraqi Civil Defense Corps that's in that area.

Now, we think this is far preferable than the U.S. going in there in a very major combat operation to achieve those objectives. If we can do it with Iraqis, that is preferable.

I just talked to Jim Conway, the Marine commander, this morning. He thinks there is a chance this will work."