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 it destroyed 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 immediately after he used gas in the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 to kill 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 the 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 rates 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 through 1999 due to UN sanctions: 1.5 million.
Percentage of them children: 50.
Number of UN 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 on 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 on another country: One [ the U.S.].
Jackson Thoreau is co-author of We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House. The updated, 120,000-word electronic book can be downloaded on his Internet site at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/ebook.html. Citizens for Legitimate Government has the earlier version at http://www.legitgov.org/we_will_not_get_over_it.html.
Thoreau can be emailed at jacksonthor@justice.com.
Israel’s Reproductive Genocide in the Gaza Strip
Date posted: April 29, 2025
By MIFTAH
Executive Summary
The ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip has compounded several humanitarian and legal violations, particularly inrelation to the reproductive rights of Palestinian women. Since the launch of its military offensive in October 2023, Israelhas systematically targeted Palestinian women in ways that undermine their ability to survive, give birth, and raisechildren. More than 12,300 women have been killed, 4,700 women and children are missing, and approximately 800,000women have been forcibly displaced. An estimated one million women and girls now suffer from acute food insecurity.Israel’s actions constitute a deliberate attempt to impair the reproductive capacities of Palestinian women, aimed atdismantling the future of Palestinian society. Through the bombing of shelters, destruction of hospitals, blockading ofmedical and hygiene supplies, and attacks on fertility clinics and maternity wards, Israel’s policy of erasure is notincidental, it is intentional.
To view the Full Policy Paper as PDF
Israel’s Attack on UNRWA and Its Implications for Palestinian Refugees
Date posted: March 05, 2025
By MIFTAH
Executive Summary
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is vital inproviding humanitarian aid, education, and health services to Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon,Syria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Beyond its humanitarian role, UNRWA represents aninternational commitment to Palestinian refugees' right of return, as established in UN General AssemblyResolution 194 in 1948. However, Israel has long sought to undermine the agency through financial, political,and military means.Recent Israeli actions have escalated, with the Israeli Knesset passing legislation banning UNRWAoperations in areas under Israeli control, effectively revoking its legal status. Concurrently, Israel hasintensified military attacks on UNRWA facilities. In the Gaza Strip since October 2023, Israeli forces havetargeted 310 UNRWA sites, destroying schools and killing 273 UNRWA employees alongside hundreds ofcivilians sheltering in its facilities. Throughout the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has been turningUNRWA facilities into military bases and detention centers, and has closed UNRWA’s headquarters in EastJerusalem. These actions violate multiple international legal agreements and aim to erase Palestinian refugeeidentity and their legal rights.
To view the Full Policy Paper as PDF
