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.
Yes I most certainly do expect of certain people that they risk life and limb to protect property. Some of those people are called fireman. You don't say to a fireman, "Ah let my house burn down to the ground, I would hate to see you get hurt. Nobody says at a fireman's funeral, "What a waste of life, all for nothing but a burning building and a pet cat." I expect the police man to go in and catch a burgler in my house or to catch somebody who stole my car but only because he is trained and willing to do it. It is his job. I don't expect my next door neighbor to do it. Common sense please.
Soldiers perform their missions and our soldiers in Iraq have done so under extremely dangerous conditions. Some are now deployed to guard hospitals and that is so much more important than guarding the museums. I read on Yahoo News that the museum administrator had promised to have guards with guns to protect the museum from looting. It is his failure, not that of our troops.
I happen to believe they could have done all of these things.
At least now you are engaging in addressing just who the perps were in allowing this horrific event to happen. That is good. I suspect this "promise" thingie won't get one very far in sanitizing the US military planners from responsibility, but that is beside the point. I salute you from moving a bit off the dime.
Then why are they guarding oil fields?
The amount of "stuff" in the Oriental Institute in Chicago is TRIVIAL compared to what was in that museum.
At least in World War II we tried to prevent looting and we started thinking about the problem long before the D-Day invasion.
Anyway, nobody is getting convinced here. Two camps have formed and are both formulating their arguments in black-and-white terms and it's turning into a cat fight. I'm going to bed.
That's the best general history of Mesopotamia that has ever been written. And Roux was a medical doctor.
Then why are we guarding oil fields?
Well they were given very complete lists of sites of historic and cultural importance. It's hard to believe this museum was left off the list. I believe you that it was an oversight, but I don't think it should have been an oversight. This will be a stain on the entire effort if it is true.
"It is his failure, not that of our troops."
I blame the Pentagon not the troops. If Rummy tries to brush this off I will lose some respect for him. It's not a joke these are not cheap vases. And I read in the Washington Post that they won't be able to get the vast majority of this stuff back. Just sickening.
War zone schmore zone. It does not matter. That is not an excuse in the case of this museum. It was not just some crummy office building. The stuff is gone forever. Forever. It WAS worth risking lives for. And the sad thing is, it is very doubtful that anybody would have died over it. Terrible calamity.
Right now it is not the most important thing. But when the war is over and everything is settled down, people are going to hit the ceiling when it fully hits home that this stuff is gone forever. And we are going to be blamed, not a bunch of starving looters. What do you mean only emotional value? They have monetary value, spiritual value, artistic value, intellectual value, historical value, scientific value and literary value.
Good point. Answer: because they are worth risking lives for and so was that museum.
I thought that too but in reality it does not usually work out that way. Anyway I am very glad that most people are not like you. Given that you don't value ancient artifacts we might expect you to tear down the great Pyramids to build a bowling alley. Troll.
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