Iraq = Our International "Waco"

On February 28, as U.S. troops amassed on the Iraqi border in preparation for war, two dozen Americans marked the ten-year anniversary of another siege – this one in Waco, Texas. The carnage that occurred in the Branch Davidian compound is now clearly etched in our national consciousness, as a senseless tragedy that could have been avoided.

The present standoff in Iraq seems half a world away from the catastrophe at Waco. And, yet, there is more to the two situations than one might presume. In both cases, we have a madman who has stockpiled arms and has used his own people as human shields against invasion. We also have the U.S. government resisting calls for precaution and dialogue, and positioning troops for attack. Just as before, the would-be invaders are supremely confident of an easy victory, and dismiss the possibility of casualties and a wider backlash.

In hindsight, we know too well the consequences of that brash incursion into Koresh’s compound: the death of 70 civilians, the rapid growth of militias in the U.S., and the bombing of the federal building in Okalahoma City. A similar catastrophe is in the making in Iraq, except that the scale of the tragedy will be far greater. Instead of scores of innocents dying, the number of Iraqi civilian casualties will be in the thousands. The scale of the backlash will also be magnified, as anti-U.S. sentiment intensifies across the world.

Of course, there are important differences between the cases of Waco and Baghdad. For one, there were no spoils of victory to be had in Waco, Texas. In Iraq, by contrast, the United States stands to gain access to the second-largest reserves of oil in the world. While the tradeoff of blood for oil may seem morally reprehensible, it nevertheless has a significant bearing on our ability to turn a blind eye to the deaths of thousands in Iraq.

Another difference is that while conservatives howled in protest over the Clinton administration’s incursion into Waco, they now fully support this government’s plans to attack Iraq. American conservatives back this war even if it includes the launching of thousands of cruise missiles at dimly known targets. They even support the war knowing that Saddam Hussein may release mustard gas and nerve gas, poisons that will primarily harm defenseless Iraqis.

Even many moderates and liberals support this war, knowing that thousands of civilians will die. However, the certainty of Iraqi deaths has no effect on our calculations of war. This is because we value American lives more than those of others. So, even if Iraqi casualties outnumber the lives lost on September 11, we see such deaths as mere collateral damage.

The hypocrisy of American support for a war on Iraq is most evident in the case of our “chief of compassionate conservatism,” George W. Bush. One would think that someone whose ranch is but a few miles from Waco would have learnt something from that tragedy. Instead, our president is leading us headlong into a similar misadventure in the Middle East. Only that this time, the consequences will be far more severe, more prolonged, and on a much greater scale. In Baghdad, we stand to create our international “Waco.”