A US-led military intervention in Iraq will trigger the collapse of Iraq's public health and food distribution system, leading to a humanitarian crisis that far exceeds the capacity of the United Nations and relief agencies, according to a report released at the U.N. by the New York-based Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR).

--from CESR's Web site

And the report suggests that this will be true even if this prediction (as reported in yesterday's Washington Post) doesn't come true:

Faced with a U.S. invasion of Iraq, President Saddam Hussein would likely launch missile and terrorist attacks against Israel and U.S. facilities abroad, preemptive strikes against the Kurds in the north, and a "scorched-earth strategy" in Iraq "significant enough to stop a military advance," the Defense Department's top intelligence official said yesterday.

Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate intelligence committee that he expects Hussein would destroy Iraq's food and water supplies, and its transportation, energy and other infrastructure, creating a humanitarian disaster that would occupy the attention of U.S. troops trying to reach Baghdad and Iraqi military units.