Um pouco de cepticismo

Jude Wanniski: "(...)I always said in these memos after the invasion that I hoped the weapons inspectors would find WMD and the imminent threat they would pose to the region and the world, even though I was sure they would not and said so before the invasion. That alone would have undermined the anti-war arguments and given justification for the invasion and the dozen years of killing sanctions. The President and the supporters the war can celebrate the elections Sunday, but they in no way alter the facts on the ground.

(...)The Internet is now bristling with reminders of Vietnam and how the national elections there in September 1967 offered so much promise of victory. For example:

U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote:Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terrorby Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)

"WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 – United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.

The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here. Pending more detailed reports, neither the State Department nor the White House would comment on the balloting or the victory of the military candidates, Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, who was running for president, and Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, the candidate for vice president.

A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.

The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta. Few members of that junta are still around, most having been ousted or exiled in subsequent shifts of power…

Before the results of the presidential election started to come in, the American officials warned that the turnout might be less than 80 per cent because the polling place would be open for two or three hours less than in the election a year ago. The turnout of 83 per cent was a welcome surprise. The turnout in the 1964 United States Presidential election was 62 per cent."