Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991                   TAG: 9104010186
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CASUALTIES/ NEAR APOCALYPSE IN IRAQ

A recent United Nations survey of civilian damage caused by the allied bombardment found "near apocalyptic" conditions. The bombing, says the report, has relegated Iraq to a "pre-industrial age."

This damage, it should be noted, was not "collateral," even though the latest Air Force assessments suggest that 70 percent of the bombs dropped in the war missed their targets. The damage now causing the most suffering in Iraq was intentional: Our bombers targeted civilian infrastructure.

As a result, says the U.N. report, "most means of modern life support have been destroyed or rendered tenuous." There is inadequate food supply, electrical power, water purification, garbage disposal and sewage treatment, among other essentials.

The residents of Baghdad and other cities lack running water, fuel and medical supplies, according to the U.N. observers. Industry is at a virtual standstill; few people can get to work.

Ominously, the report says Iraq's "rivers are heavily polluted with raw sewage. Pools of sewage lie in the streets." The U.N. observers warn that epidemics and famine are imminent.

Meanwhile, Iraqis' misery is intensified by the civil conflict that the allied war unleashed. American troops watch as Saddam Hussein's forces crush the Shiite and Kurdish rebellions, carving a trail of slaughter and leaving many more civilian casualties.

Saddam must be held ultimately responsible for what has happened to his country. It was his decision to invade Kuwait. Still, America cannot escape all responsibility. It was President Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq.

So let us continue the embargo on Iraqi oil exports and arms imports while Saddam remains in place, but let us rush humanitarian aid to the people. And let us not reckon up all the costs of this war quite yet. Let us broaden our judgments of the war's proportionality.

Yes, fewer than 200 allied lives were lost. But estimates of Iraqi casualties during the fighting exceeded 100,000. That number will climb considerably higher as the dying and killing in a crippled Iraq continue.