umber of precision-guided missiles and bombs that the United States plans to launch per hour at Baghdad during the war's first 48 hours: 63

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

Percentage of U.S. bombs and missiles dropped during the first Gulf War that were precision-guided: 9

Percentage of U.S. bombs and missiles ready to be dropped during the coming war that are precision-guided: 75

Number of U.S. satellite-guided bombs stockpiled in the Gulf region: 6700

Number of U.S. laser-guided bombs stockpiled in the Gulf region: 3000

Number of Americans killed during the first Gulf War: 148

Proportion of Americans killed by "friendly fire" during the first Gulf War: 1 in 3

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

Number of Americans killed during the "Black Hawk Down" episode in Mogadishu in 1993: 18

Number of Somalis killed during the "Black Hawk Down" episode in Mogadishu in 1993: 500 to 1000

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

Number of Vietnamese killed during the Vietnam War: 5.1 million

Number of American soldiers poised for attack at the borders of Iraq: 100,000

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 the civil war within Iraq following an invasion: 20,000

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

Number of total deaths if nuclear weapons are used: 3,900,000

Percentage of Americans who believe that oil best explains why the U.S. 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: 112,000,000,000

Year that Iraq nationalized all foreign oil holdings: 1972

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

Year that Dick Cheney, as head of oil field equipment manufacturer Halliburton, called for the end to sanctions against Iraq: 2000

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: 50th out of 130 nations

Ranking of Iraq on the U.N. Human Development Index in 2000: 126th out 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

Ratio of U.S. military spending to the combined military budgets of Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria: 26 to 1

Percentage of U.S. share of total global military spending in 1985: 31

Percentage of U.S. share of total global military spending in 2000: 36

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

Sources: Harper's, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Agence France Presse, Parameters, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You, Policy Analysis, Denver Post, Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Sierra Club

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