Last week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld commented, “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. Well, that’s — so be it. Nothing’s perfect in life. So you have an election that’s not quite perfect.”
Powell’s deputy, Richard Armitage, later said Iraq elections must be “open to all citizens” and that partial elections were not being considered.
