It's Just War

The government currently estimates that 3,500 Iraqi civilians and approximately 100,000 (give or take 50,000) Iraqi soldiers were killed during the 1991 war, which lasted about 100 hours.

But that death toll does not take into account the aftermath -- the starvation and disease that ensued. One Commerce Department report (authored by Beth Osborne Daponte and later suppressed by the government) claims the 1991 war took the lives of some 158,000 Iraqis, 83,000 of whom were civilians, including 32,000 children.

As to the currently contemplated war: Though the Bush administration will not release mortality estimates, some administration insiders say that tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens could die after an invasion.

As Elinor Turner wrote in City Paper's Feb. 27 cover story, "The Real Costs of War," the prominent humanitarian physicians' group Medact has estimated that Iraqi deaths from the war could eventually reach half a million.

But at least the oil fields will be safe.