as a prelude to the introduction of American troops.

The population of Iraq has been reduced to the status of refugees. 60% of them or almost 14 million Iraqis depend entirely on a government provided food ration that by international standards is the minimum for sustenance. Unemployment is greater than 50% and the majority of those who are employed make between $4-$8 a month. (The latter figure the salary of a physician who works in a primary health center.) Most families are without economic resources as they have sold off their possessions over the last decade to get by. Hospital wards are filled with severely malnourished children and much of the population has a marginal nutritional status.

The food distribution program funded by the U.N. Oil-for-Food sales is the world's largest and is heavily dependent upon transportation that will be one of the first targets of the war. The U.S. will sever transport routes to prevent Iraqi armed forces from movement or re-supply. The feeding program will be its first victim. Even before the transportation system is hit , U.S. aircraft will spread millions of graphite filaments in wind-dispersed munitions that will cause a complete paralysis of the nation's electrical grids. Already literally held together with bailing wire, because they have been unable to obtain spare parts due to sanctions, the poorly functioning electrical system is essential to the public health infrastructure.

The water treatment system too, has been a victim of sanctions. Unable to import chlorine and aluminum sulfate (alum) to purify water, there are already 1000% increases in the incidence of some waterborne diseases (typhoid cases have increased from 2200 in 1990 to more than 27,000 in 1999). People will not have potable water in their homes and they will not have water to flush their toilets.

The sanitation system, which frequently backs-up sewage ankle-deep in Baghdad neighborhoods when the ailing pumps fail, will now have no pumps at all. There will be epidemics as water treatment and water pumping will come to a halt. Pregnant women, malnourished children, and the elderly will be the first to succumb.

The health care system of Iraq cannot handle an emergency of this nature even if there were not thousands of victims of "collateral damage" as we have promised a cruise missile every five minutes for the first 48 hours seeking out military, intelligence, and security forces around Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul, Iraq's largest cities.

Even though it is against the Geneva Conventions to target infrastructure that primarily serves civilians, it did not cause us to pause in the Gulf War and will not this time. If the U.S. pursues this war without the backing of the U.N. Security Council, it will undermine a half century of efforts by the world community to establish a foundation of humanitarian and human rights law to guide international behavior. Such an act violates the U.N. Charter and makes mockery of the institution we have helped to fashion in the hopes it would help prevent crimes against humanity. Many might define the consequences of such an attack on the population of Iraq as just that.

There was a lot that made me angry on that trip. I have worked in war zones before and I have been with civilians as they were bombed by U.S. supplied aircraft, but I don't think I've experienced anything on the magnitude of the catastrophe that awaits our attack in Iraq.

I have just described the basics without any of the horror scenarios such as the unleashing of weapons of mass destruction, civil war or retribution by mobs vying for power or revenge, or house- to-house fighting as Baghdad becomes another Mogadishu or Jenin.

Saddam is a monster, there is no doubt about that. He needs to be contained and many former U.N. weapons inspectors feel he has been 'defanged.' His neighbors do not fear him any longer. There are many Iraqis who want him removed but not by a U.S. war. We may be unleashing forces of hatred and resentment that will haunt us for decades in every corner of the world. I can just hear Osama Bin Laden now "please President Bush, there's nothing better you could do to help the cause of Al Qaida!"

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