UN criticises Iraq poll warning

[bigtree]

Rumsfeld yesterday:

"Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three quarters or four fifths of the country but some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," he said.

"Well, so be it, nothing is perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet."


UN criticises Iraq poll warning

The leader of the UN team organising Iraq's elections has criticised the US defence secretary for suggesting only a limited vote might take place.

Such speculation was unhelpful and ran the risk of making people feel excluded from the poll scheduled for January, Carlos Valenzuela told the BBC.

The State department didn't get Rummy's memo

Richard Armitage, number two at the state department, told reporters he knew of no plans to exclude violent areas from the elections.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3687744.stm

[ewagner]

1. Rummy...uummmm...

The people who don't get to vote will revolt...VIOLENTLY!!!!

sheeeesh....Rummy the dummy indeed!

[kerryin2004]

2. Let us ask Rumsfeld to leave out Texas in our next election..

Would he be okay with that??

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. Dumsfeld needs to read today's NYTImes op-ed

The subtitle in the print editions reads: "A flawed election would be worse than not having one"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/opinion/24feldman.html?pagewanted=print&position=