human crises
in comparison
pearl harbor  2400
hamburg bombing 50,000
hiroshima 140,000
nagasaki 75,000
vietnam 5 million
laos* 100,000 (this total could easily be five to 10 times higher; Laos has the sad distinction of being the most heavily bombed nation on Earth as a result the United States' Secret War in the 1960s and 1970s; "One person is still killed by American bombs an average of every two days in Laos, some 25 years after the war. It is estimated that it will take another 100 years to completely rid Laos of all the unexploded American ordinance that remains in the country.)
9.11.1973 3000
cambodia** 2.1 million (600,000 from U.S. bombing campaign; at least 1.5 million during Khmer Rouge purge)
iraq, 1991*** 2 million
rwanda 865,000 (totals for the genocide range between 800,000 and 930,000)
congo 3.8 million and rising, mostly from starvation and disease
al-aqsa intifada 3800
9.11.2001 3000
afghanistan, 2001**** 20,000 (though there are no definitive statistics and varying methods for tabulation...)
iraq, 2003**** 60,000 (...and neither of these totals takes into consideration deaths owed to destroyed infrastructure, starvation, disease and revenge killings)
indian ocean tsunami 200,000 (with several thousand still listed as missing)
* - Hmong army deaths only
** - U.S. bombing + Khmer Rouge
*** - Includes deaths from sanctions
**** - Very uncertain total (see "The Bitter Legacy of 9/11," which quotes 72,000 civilians killed)
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