Was not certain where else this might go.
Good God - is anyone listening or have we each become de-sensitized to such acts of violence and barbarity.
Health Groups Warn of Death Toll from Iraq War, 12 November 2002
A United States-led military attack against Iraq could result directly in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, warns a new report released Tuesday by a trio of leading global health groups. Drawing on the 1991 Gulf War experience, along with other recent war scenarios, the groups - Boston-based International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the London-based Medact - found that as many as 80,000 civilians could be killed in a conventional assault on the capital Baghdad and four of Iraq’s other major cities - Basra, Diyala, Kirkuk, and Mosul.
That estimate excludes the likely toll for Iraqi military forces, which, the report warned, could equal the number of civilian deaths. Iraqi wounded, both civilian and military, could well exceed half a million in a conventional war, according to their 14-page report, ‘Collateral Damage: The Health and Environmental Costs of War on Iraq,’ which stressed that post-war health effects could take as many as 200,000 more lives in Iraq.
“In an era where images of combat are beamed from aircraft, it is too easy to forget about the direct, physical consequences of war,” said Amy Sisley, a professor of surgery at the University of Maryland. “Bombs deafen, blind and blow apart people, riddling them with shrapnel, glass and debris.”
The report has been issued only days after the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously for Baghdad to comply with tough UN weapons inspections. Non-compliance, according to diplomats, will almost certainly lead to a U.S.-led attack against Iraq. Already Washington is reported to have shipped thousands of tons of military equipment to the Gulf region in preparation.
According to major U.S. newspapers, President George W. Bush has committed to a war plan that would include sustained bombing of key communications and military targets and simultaneous commando attacks on suspected missile and chemical and biological weapons sites. These, say reports, would be followed by ground offensives designed to seize key areas of northern, western, and southern Iraq before any advance to Baghdad.
Briefing the press, U.S. military planners stressed that they hoped Hussein’s government would collapse in the initial stages of the campaign, so as to minimize casualties. They said that, unlike the 1991 Gulf war, when “smart bombs” were used sparingly, this time Washington would place greater reliance on their use.
The report projected that a Hiroshima-sized nuclear bomb on Baghdad could kill between 66,000 and 360,000 people. In a worst-case scenario, a modern-day thermonuclear bomb could exterminate between 306,000 and 3.6 million.
**Based on previous studies, the report estimated that between approximately 142,000 and 206,000 Iraqis died as a direct result of the Gulf War and the internal fighting that ensued. However, it cautions that a fresh conflict is likely to be “much more intense and destructive.”
Apart from the immediate physical casualties, the report adds that, barring the elite, few Iraqis would be able to withstand the physical and psychological damage of a conflict.**
The report also outlines the possible impact on neighboring countries, particularly if there is an exodus of refugees from Iraq. This would be aggravated if oil wells in Iraq were fired, as in the 1991 Gulf war, or Baghdad launched chemical or biological weapons against U.S. troops.