U.N. Sees 500,000 Iraqi Casualties at Start of War

As many as half a million Iraqis could require medical treatment as a result of serious injuries suffered in the early stages of a war on Iraq, U.N. emergency planners said in a document disclosed Tuesday.

The total includes some 100,000 expected to be injured as a direct result of combat and a further 400,000 wounded as an indirect result of the devastation, according to estimates prepared by the World Health Organization, the document said....

War would also produce a huge refugee problem, driving some 900,000 Iraqis into neighboring countries, with about 100,000 of those requiring immediate assistance as soon as they arrived, according to the U.N. estimate.

Another 2 million could be driven from their homes but remain inside Iraq, where access by relief agencies would be a particular problem due to the fighting, the planners say....

--Reuters story at ABCNEWS.com

Iraq's population is 26.5 million, about a tenth of America's -- so multiply those numbers by ten if you want to try to imagine something comparable here.

The report cited in the story is here, in PDF form.