NATO Unloads more ordnance on Libya than the Luftwaffe dumped on Britain during WW2

Nazi Luftwaffe over England
Image source

As of yesterday, NATO reports having conducted a total of 20,395 air sorties over Libya since March 31, including 7,681 strike sorties.

NATO does not report how much high explosive was delivered to Libyan targets, but we can make a rough estimate. A Canadian CF-18 can deliver between six and eight tons of armaments, depending on which particular version of the plane is deployed, whereas and American B-2 stealth bomber can deliver up to 60 tons in a single sortie. It would seem conservative, therefore, to assume an average bomb load of around ten tons per strike sortie (even allowing for a percentage of aborted missions), or a total of 77,000 tons.

That compares favorably with the 74,000 tons that the Nazis managed to drop over England during the Blitz of WW2, and amounts to more than ten kilograms of high explosive for every citizen of Libya.

NATO blast in Tripoli. Image source

There is a difference, though, between the Luftwaffe dropping bombs more or less haphazardly in the vicinity of London or some other very large target -- usually at night from above a blanket of cloud -- and NATO delivering laser guided smart bombs in Libya today. Smart bombs yield much more useful death and destruction per ton.

Nazi bombing of Britain during WW2 killed about 40,000 civilians. No reliable estimates of the death toll from NATO bombing in Libya are available: but is it likely to be less than 40,000?

Meantime:

The Tripolitanians aren't cheering that much;

the African Union won't recognize the rebel Transitional Council;

But unlike Libya all is peaceful in Morocco (Human Development Index rank 125 versus Libya, the highest in Africa, at 58)

And those ingrates in South Africa have started talking about NATO war crimes in Libya.

And NATO declares being in Gadaffi’s political camp a capital offence.

On a more cheeful note: NATO nations set to reap spoils of Libya war.