NBC’s Brian Williams was interviewed by Chris Matthews on Hardball earlier tonight, and he wanted to remind us that because there has been no recent census, we don’t really know exactly how many Iraqi citizens there are — so even if a large percentage of the 14 million Iraqis registered to vote did so, we need to be cautious in making statements about how representative the government will be.
Of the umpteen posts I’ve uploaded today, none of them start with Kate’s Letter Of The Day. How utterly unfortunate.
UNBELIEVABLE: Bill O’Reilly just interviewed a retired Air Force colonel Walter Boyne. The man thinks we ought to be bombing civilian targets and shooting civilians indiscriminately in order to get this war over with swiftly. He’s advocating war crimes of the highest order. How does a man like that get through 25 plus years of military service, let alone get promoted five times?
Update: For international treates and other citations on international law and the bombing of civilians, see Dannen’s list. For more on Just War theory, see The Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Williams was glum all day for some reason. And Matthews was pretty skeptical of the whole thing.
If memory serves, it was reported several weeks ago that voting lists were based on the old regime’s registration records pertaining to some kind of Oil-for-Food program benefits to individuals. I think these were like “ration books” or accounts. Until now, I thought it was generally accepted that these records were pretty darn complete: 1. Because it was in the old regime’s interest to show as many “beneficiaries” as possible, and 2. Private citizens were not about to ignore the dictator’s desire that everyone sign up. This is the first time I ever heard anyone challenge the voter registration lists. Kinda late now, isn’t it?
Oops, I didn’t mean to pingback.
/me feels like such a n00b.
Perhaps the question here should be!
How many people voted in hopes that the occupying force would view the vote as a true test and example of freedom and democracy and thus, depart as soon as possible.
We can be sure that Bush will use this vote for just that end, In spite of any intervening reality.
What, Lt. Bell — now you want us to stay indefinitely?