Posted on 04/12/2003 7:05:07 AM PDT by kalt
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Looters have sacked Baghdad's antiquities museum, plundering treasures dating back thousands of years to the dawn of civilization in Mesopotamia, museum staff said on Saturday.
They blamed U.S. troops for not protecting the treasures.
Surveying the littered glass wreckage of display cases and pottery shards at the Iraqi National Museum on Saturday, deputy director Nabhal Amin wept and told Reuters: "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars."
She blamed U.S. troops, who have controlled Baghdad since the collapse of President Saddam Hussein's rule on Wednesday, for failing to heed appeals from museum staff to protect it from looters who moved in to the building on Friday.
"The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened," she said. "I hold the American troops responsible for what happened to this museum."
The looters broke into rooms that were built like bank vaults with huge steel doors. The museum grounds were full of smashed doors, windows and littered with office paperwork and books.
"We know people are hungry but what are they going to do with these antiquities," said Muhsen Kadhim, a museum guard for the last 30 years but who said he was overwhelmed by the number of looters.
"As soon as I saw the American troops near the museum, I asked them to protect it but the second day looters came and robbed or destroyed all the antiquities," he said.
ARMED GUARDS
Amin told four of the museum guards to carry guns and protect what remained.
Some of the museum's artifacts had been moved into storage to avoid a repeat of damage to other antiquities during the 1991 Gulf War.
It houses items from ancient Babylon and Nineveh, Sumerian statues, Assyrian reliefs and 5,000-year-old tablets bearing some of the earliest known writing. There are also gold and silver helmets and cups from the Ur cemetery.
The museum was only opened to the public six months ago after shutting down at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War. It survived air strikes on Baghdad in 1991 and again was almost unscathed by attacks on the capital by U.S.-led forces.
Iraq, a cradle of civilization long before the empires of Egypt, Greece or Rome, was home to dynasties that created agriculture and writing and built the cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Babylon -- site of Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens.
I blame the planners, not the troops.
"Perhaps you should consider that there were extremely legitimate reasons why that museum could not be protected by the troops."
It's a museum filled with irreplaceable artifacts. They should have planned to have it guarded. There were troops in the area. It should have been in the war plan as part of preserving the infrastructure. It is as important as the oil wells. It would have been the icing on the cake of a spectacular campaign to have newspaper headlines that read, "Museum secured, ancient artifacts guarded by coalition troops."
Oh well to heck with it. I don't want to argue about it anymore.
Weren't you judging the military for not protecting the museum? It is obvious from your statements that you know very little about the military and its mission. They are not in Iraq to be traffic cops or babysitters or bank guards.
They are still focused on completing their mission and destroying the fedayeen. I have friends and family over there and their job is to win a war, not to protect property. If the enemies capability is degraded and circumstances permit then our soldiers will fulfill the requirements that are within their mission statement.
This is true now, was true in World War ll and has been true for our army since our nation was formed. These people are soldiers not security cops. The training they receive requires total concentration and fulltime focus.
I have a friend who is a policeman. The training he receives is very different from the training of our military. The function of the military is to destroy the enemy before he destroys you.
The function of a policeman is to uphold the laws that govern our country. A secondary requirement for a policeman could require him to use deadly force.
The reactions and the training of these two missions are tremendously different. There are military police, however, the last administration cut them so much that we don't have even enough to insure combat mission requirements, much less, police a city.
If these soldiers are ordered to police the city they will do so only when the military threat is neutralized and will do it only as long as it takes to get somebody else who is trained for the job.
To say that an army is responsible for policing a city is equivalent to thinking that the German SS did a good job in World War ll.
Being a history person, if they did indeed destroy ancient artifacts than they are barbarians. However, they can't blame US troops for people being barbarians. Was it the LAPDs fault when the looters went nuts in LA? I do think there is more to this story though. I don't have any clue why they would go and smash ancient pots if they did then hopefully the vigilanties in Baghdad will take care of them.
Translation: My Government check is late!
One great big mega ditto. If Rummy tries to gloss this one over, I would slap him if I could.
That is what I heard on another forum.
It sure wasn't our troops. Get over your hissy fit and use some reason. The cradle of civilization has been rocked by an evil "mother" for so many years that many of the people have shaken baby syndrome. Some looted. Others opened the vaults. There is no way that so many people could have taken 170,000 artifacts in two days. Saddam's people are corrupt and they were running the museum. Our troops are performing their mission to win the war. They cannot be two places at once.
I've actually been wondering about the museum there lately.
My current reading includes Ancient Iraq by Georges Roux.
I guess you were in Baghdad recently huh? So since you were there you know exactly what happened, right? You are believing what is reported totally without any doubt huh? Enough to condemn the U.S. troops while we are still at war? Something tells me you know very little about the military. I could, however be wrong. Doubt that you think you ever are.
That point of view is profoundly pernicious in my opinion. I am pleased to know, and indeed pay for, the preservation of things I will never see, because one who is civilized takes satisfaction knowing that they are there, for the enrichment and enjoyment and knowledge of our species in general. Would you be indifferent to Yellowstone or Gettysburg or whatever being spoiliated because you will never visit? Plus one can with the modern communications take trips where one's corpus need not leave one's home.
See post #169.
We did not bomb the museum. Our military was very careful not to target sacred places. I believe we have a better record than the military did in World War ll. I have seen some of the destruction of the churches in Berlin. Looters looted the museum. That is unfortunate but we are still fighting this war.
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