April 1991, Page 55

Figure It Out

Compiled by Parker L. Payson

Number of US soldiers in the Middle East per journalist: 360 ¹

Number of Kurds in Iraq: 4.8 million; in Iran: 6.7 million; in Turkey: 14 million ²

Percentage of Kuwait's 1,080 oil wells on fire on March 15: 56 ³

Estimated daily revenue lost by Kuwait from burning oil: $140 million ⁴

Number of square miles of Iraq occupied by US troops on March 17, 1991: 40,448 ⁵

Total number of square miles in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey: 39,983 ⁶

Number of mines laid by Iraqi troops in Kuwait per square mile: 45 ⁷

Percentage of Iraq's pre-war foreign earnings generated by oil production: 95 ⁸

Estimated percentage of Iraq's oil production capacity destroyed: 80 ⁹

Amount of potential annual oil revenue generated from 20 percent of Iraq's production capacity at $18 a barrel: $3.5 billion ¹⁰

Total Iraqi pre-war debt: $80 billion ¹¹

Exchange rate of Lebanese pound to the US dollar in 1975: 3 to 1; in March 1991: 970 to 1 ¹²

Amount of Egyptian debt forgiven by the US and Arab Gulf states during the Gulf crisis: $13.5 billion; Egypt's remaining foreign debt: $36 billion ¹³

Size of the pollution cloud over the Middle East on March 19 caused by burning Kuwaiti oil wells: 3 10,000 sqare miles ¹⁴

Average number of toxic micrograms per cubic meter in the pollution cloud on March 19: 55 ¹⁵

Average number of toxic micrograms per cubic meter in the air over Los Angeles metropolitan airport: 11 ¹⁶

Total bomb tonnage dropped by US forces on Indochina during the eight-and-a-half year Vietnam War: 66,375 ¹⁷

Total bomb tonnage dropped by US forces on Kuwait and Iraq during the 43-day Gulf war: 88,500 ¹⁸

Estimated percentage of bombs that missed their targets: 70 ¹⁹

Percentage of Israelis who approved of Israel's decision not to retaliate against Saddam during the Gulf War: 75 ²⁰

Percentage of Jordanians living below the poverty line in March 1990: 23; In March 1991: 30 ²¹

Number of French state-of-the-art AS-30 bombs in Iraq's possession in January 1991: 240 ²²

Number of AS-30 bombs in France's possession in January 1991: 180 ²³

Official price of a gallon of gasoline in Iraq on March 12, 1991: $1.14; actual market price: $121.12 ²⁴

Estimated incremental costs of Operation Desert Storm: $70 billion; US portion: $16 billion²⁵

Funds allocated by the US Senate to bail out the savings-and-loan industry: $80 billion ²⁶

Number of Iraqi prisoners-of-war captured by US and Saudi forces during the Gulf war: 65,000 ²⁷

Number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli Defense Forces since 1989: 75, 000 ²⁸

Percentage of Iraqis who are Shi'i Muslim: 55; percentage of Iranians: 95; percentage of Bahrainis: 70 ²⁹

Number of candy bars eaten by CBS correspondent Bob Simon in 25 minutes after his release from 41 days of Iraqi captivity: 6 ³⁰

Percentage of Kuwaiti reconstruction projects, as of March 20, allocated to US firms: 67 ³¹

Estimated number of phone calls by American businesses to the US Department of Commerce's Gulf Reconstruction Center hotline during the week of March 3: 35,000 ³²

1 National Newspaper Association; 2 Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Middle East and North Africa; 3 US Defense Department; 4 House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich; 5US Defense Department; 6 The 1991 World Almanac; 7 US Defense Department; 8 The Economist; 9 Ibid.; 10 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries; 11 The Washington Post; 12 The Wall Street Journal; 13 The Middle East magazine; 14 Pacific Sierra Research Corporation; 15 Ibid.; 16 Ibid.; 17 US Defense Department; 18 US Air Force; 19 US Defense Department, The Washington Post; 20 The Washington Post; 21 The United Nations Children's Fund; 22 Le Figaro magazine; 23 Ibid.; 24 Middle East Times; 25 Senate Foreign Affairs Committee; 26 The McLaughlin Report; 27 US Defense Department; 28 Israeli Defense Force Judge Advocate General Brig. Gen. Amnon Strashnov; 29 US State Department, CIA 1990 World Factbook; 30 CBS producer Peter Bluff, Middle East Times; 31 US Department of Commerce; 32 Small Business Subcommittee of the House Banking Committee