>>211874226>That wasn't the point. It was a rhetorical question meant to show that a US senator knew absolutely nothing about a country he wanted to go to war with.It's not just just exposing general ignorance, it shows a lack of consideration of very relevant strategic factors in a war / regime change.
Population size determines a country's available military manpower, its capacity to rebuild and produce, how much punishment it can take to civilian infrastructure, how extensive its internal security apparatus must be, how many occupying troops are needed, and about a thousand other crucial decisions that an influential wartime Senator would be involved with.
I wouldn't expect him to know the population down to the 1 millions. But if you can't say off hand that it's closer to 100 million than 10 million, then you either aren't taking things seriously or someone else is making the decisions for you.