About 20 million Iraqis would be affected by an election to write a constitution for a permanent government, to an extent equivalent to, say, 6 months of life, or about 10 million life-years.

Human News aims to devote 1 character to each 40,000 life-years, or 1000 average lives. Thus, this story can have about (10 million) / 40,000 = 250 characters.