Operation Iraqi Invasion, By the Numbers
By Jackson Thoreau
(NOTE: This is a variation of a question-and-answer piece on the
relationship between Iraq, the U.S., Europe, and military campaigns
circulating through cyberspace. I set it up as an easier-to-read
numerical column and added a few items of my own. The numbers speak for
themselves.)
- Percentage of the world's population living in the U.S: 6
- Percentage of the world's energy resources used in the U.S: 30
- Rank of Iraq among countries in the world for the largest oil reserves: 2 [behind Saudi Arabia]
- Military spending, worldwide: $900 billion
- Percentage of worldwide military spending by U.S: 50
- Percentage of worldwide military spending by Iraq: 0.0015.
- Percentage of Iraq's military capacity U.S. claimed to destroy in 1991 Persian Gulf War: 80
- Percentage of Iraq's post-1991 capacity to develop weapons of
mass destruction the UN claimed to have discovered and dismantled by
1998: 90
- Percentage of U.S. military spending that would ensure basic necessities to everyone in the world: 10
- Number of Americans who have died in wars since World War II: 92,212
- Number of people living outside U.S. who have died in wars since World War II: 25 million
- Years that Iraq has had chemical and biological weapons: 20
- Number of U.S. and European corporations that supplied Iraq
with materials and knowledge to make chemical and biological weapons
since the early 1980s: 150
- Number of Western nations that condemned Saddam Hussein in
1988 after he gassed the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing an estimated
5,000 people: 0
- Number of pounds of Agent Orange and other herbicides U.S. dropped in the Vietnam War: 100 million
- Value of worldwide weapons trade: $800 billion
- Percentage of weapons dealt by U.S. companies worldwide: 50
- Estimated Number of Iraqi civilian deaths in 1991 Persian Gulf War: 35,000
- Estimated Number of retreating Iraqi soldiers buried alive by U.S. tanks in 1991 war: 6,000
- Estimated Number of Iraqi civilian deaths Pentagon predicted in the 2003 war: 10,000
- Estimated Number of Iraqi civilian casualties in the 2003 war so far: 800
- Percentage of Iraqi civilian deaths that are children: 50
- Tons of depleted uranium left in Iraq and Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf War: 40
- Percentage increase in cancer raes in Iraq between 1991 and 1994: 700
- Number of years the U.S. has engaged in air strikes on Iraq: 26
- Pounds of explosives U.S.-led coalition dropped on Iraq in 1991 Persian Gulf War: 177 million
- Pounds of explosives U.S.-British pilots dropped on Iraq between December 1998 and September 1999: 20 million
- Estimated pounds of explosives U.S.-British pilots have
dropped on Iraq since the start of Operation Iraqi Invasion in March
2003: 200 million
- Years Iraq has lived under economic sanctions imposed by the UN: 12
- Iraqi child death rate in 1989 [per 1,000 births]: 30
- Iraqi child death rate in 1999 [per 1,000 births]: 131
- Number of Iraqis estimated to have died as of 1999 due to UN sanctions: 1.5 million
- Percentage of them that were children: 50
- Number of UN weapons inspections conducted in Iraq in November-December 1998: 300
- Number of those inspections with problems: 5
- Number of UN weapons inspections conducted in Iraq in 2003: 500
- Number of UN resolutions Israel violated through 1992: More than 65
- Number of UN resolutions against Israel that U.S. vetoed between 1972 and 1990: More than 30
- Number of UN weapons inspections Israel has ever allowed: 0
- Number of nuclear warheads U.S. has: More than 10,000
- Number of nuclear warheads Israel has: More than 400
- Number of nuclear warheads Iraq has: 0
- Number of countries known to have nuclear weapons: 8
- Number of countries that have used nuclear weapons to attack another country: 1
Jackson Thoreau is co-author of We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House. Thoreau can be emailed at jacksonthor@justice.com.