The Water Weapon

If the economic blockade against Iraq does not bite quickly enough, and Bush decides he would like to raise the ante without launching an attack, he has an intriguing option: cut off the water. Iraq’s major rivers wash down from Turkey and Syria, two nations that are part of the alliance against Saddam Hussein. Turkey, which has already cut off key Iraqi oil pipelines, is in the better position to severely disrupt the flow. With some effort, the Ataturk dam on the Euphrates River could be used as a plug on the crucial water supply, and there are already enough antiaircraft missiles in place to defend it from Iraqi bombers. Another, more wasteful proposal is simply to divert feeder rivers into desert areas. U.S. officials are aware that the Iraqi regime worries about a cutoff: in the early days of the crisis, Baghdad pointedly warned Turkey not to tamper with its water.