deposits, without the US being involved. Additionally, if America's goal was to simply obtain oil, we would only .
have to lift the sanctions, and it would flow freely, but Hussein would have vastly more resources to continue his .
nefarious campaign. It should be noted as well that the US had the opportunity to claim Iraqi oil fields in 1991, and chose not to. Also, the question of a long war involving heavy casualties should not be a concern. Saddam .
Hussein's regime is built on fear. He doesn't have the loyalty of his military, save the Republican Guard, to .
deploy much of resistance, or launch a chemical/biological attack. In 1991, thousands of Iraqis surrendered .
immediately, some, in a notable example, even to an unarmed journalist. Also, he killed a majority of his top .
advisors and generals after losing the Gulf War. Given the fact that America has been quite forthright in the .
position that anyone who wishes to have a place in the new government of Iraq will not fight us, and Saddam's .
complete lack of loyalty, his infrastructure will dissipate almost instantaneously. Civilian casualties are an .
unfortunate association with war, but will be very minimal consequent of effective planning, and its short-duration. After all, the US military was quite effective in minimizing civilian casualites in the first Gulf War. Some might argue that depleted uranium from the US Military is a cause for leukemia in Iraq's population. This is largely unsubstantiated speculation. US soldiers are constantly exposed to this substance, and according to a 1999 National Defense Research Institute report, living in close proximity to depleted uranium with "continuous exposure at that rate for 24 hours a day for 365 days would produce an annual dose of about 2.6 rem (8,760 hours at 0.0003 rem/hr), slightly more than half the annual occupational limit." Terrorist attacks will not increase in volume on .