LARAMIE - The war being waged by the United States and its allies in Iraq is not a war on terror, but a war of terror, an American-born woman with an Iraqi father and a Jewish mother told a University of Wyoming audience Tuesday.

Dahlia Wasfi, a physician touring the country as an advocate against the war, pushed for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq while cautioning that the situation might get worse before it improves.

Wasfi's presentation was titled, "Shock and Awe: The U.S. Occupation of Iraq."

Wasfi, 34, who now lives in Denver, came to the United States with her family at the age of 5. She grew up in Dover, Del., and was educated at Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She most recently visited Iraq in 2004.

While some would disagree with Wasfi, her appearance was being presented in the interest of open dialogue and public discussion, said Garth Massey, director of the UW International Studies Program.

It's not yet clear whether the Iraq war is like "the United States in Vietnam, trying to establish a democratic government and finally exiting, or a modern-day colonial exercise to extend U.S. power and secure resources for the American way of life, or something we have never seen before," Massey said.

At any rate, he said, "it's not a pretty picture."

Wasfi offered no excuses for overthrown Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, saying he was a terrible tyrant and "the Iraqis hated him."

The country suffered not only from Saddam's rule, Wasfi said, but also from a host of other impediments including the Gulf War and the American sanctions imposed on Iraq as well as the current conflict.

Iraqis have known "blood in the streets for the last 12 1/2 years and counting," she said. The Iraqi hospital system, she said, was "derailed by the sanctions" and has never recovered.

Wasfi questioned the United States' motives for returning to Iraq 12 years after Operation Desert Storm.

"The Iraqi people were never a threat to us," she said.

Wasfi noted one computation showed that 100 Iraqi civilians died for every U.S. military death. Extrapolating from this to the present Pentagon death count of more than 2,000, she said she figured Iraqi deaths would total about 200,000.

"In my book it's genocide," Wasfi said.

Wasfi illustrated her talk with projections ranging from Iraq's history as one of the cradles of civilization to the current terror in the streets.

She said the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Biblical grove that once stood near Baghdad and shown during her presentation, was "built without a contract from Halliburton."

Of a dismayed child standing amid the ruins of war, she said, "This is what this little girl knows about America. That is why the resistance has grown."

Demonstrators were shown with banners written in English: "Troops Go Home" and "Sooner or Later, U.S. Killers, We'll Kick You Out."

If Americans think veterans' hospitals are strapped now, Wasfi said, they should "give it a couple of years."

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson told reporters in Laramie earlier this week that the ratio of wounded to dead in the American military is much higher than in previous wars, because of life-saving medical advances, and that many of the wounded "will be in the VA system for the rest of their lives."

Star-Tribune correspondent W. Dale Nelson can be reached at {M3wdnelson@bresnan.net.