Blood, stats and tears

Number of days it is expected to take for Baghdad residents to become “physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted”: 2 to 5.

Number of U.S. satellite-guided bombs stockpiled in the Gulf region: 6,700.

Number of U.S. laser-guided bombs stockpiled in the Gulf region: 3,000.

Number of Americans killed during the first Gulf War: 148.

Number of Iraqis killed during the first Gulf War: 100,000.

Number of Americans killed during the Vietnam War: 58,000.

Number of Vietnamese killed during the Vietnam War: 5.1 million.

Number of U.S. military personnel poised for attack at the borders of Iraq: 100,000.

Number of Sacramento-area Air Force Reserve members currently “mobilized” out of Travis Air Force Base: 617.

Number of Iraqis and Americans who, doctors say, might die in the next war: 48,000 to 260,000.

Number of additional deaths expected from “post-war adverse health effects”: 200,000.

Number of total deaths if nuclear weapons are used: 3.9 million.

Percentage of Americans who believe oil best explains why the United States would use military force against Iraq: 22.

Ranking of Iraq among countries with proven reserves of oil: 2.

Number of barrels of oil in Iraq’s proven reserves: 112 billion.

Year Iraq nationalized all foreign oil holdings: 1972.

Year U.S. oil companies were prohibited from investing in or buying Iraqi oil: 1991.

Units of “human blood” shipped weekly in plastic bags to the Gulf region from Travis Air Force Base since shortly after September 11, 2001: 200.

Number of U.S. Army soldiers ready to decontaminate corpses and send them back home for burial: 700.

Ranking of Iraq on the U.N. Human Development Index in 1990: 50 on a list of 130 nations.

Ranking of Iraq on the U.N. Human Development Index in 2000: 126 on a list of 174 nations.

Number of Iraqi children who have died as a direct result of sanctions, according to UNICEF: 500,000.

U.S. military spending, in billions of dollars per day: 1.08.

Number of U.S. states used in 1998 for the staging of mock nuclear attacks on North Korea: 2 (North Carolina and Florida).

Date that the Nuclear Posture Review (signed by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld)—describing contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria—was delivered to Congress: January 8, 2002.

These statistics were compiled by Ward Harkavy of The Village Voice with additional local reporting by SN&R.