Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum

Reuters ^ | April 12, 2003 | Hassan Hafidh

[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.

[wideminded]

That's an interesting quote. But Nietzsche did not say that about Art Historians.

[Gasshog]

a bunch of old vases have been stolen by the starving masses

Those would be nice for target practice dontcha think?

=^___^=

[Gasshog]

Maybe there's still a pile of ancient Yak dung that you can guard with your life

LOL!

[Gasshog]

Perhaps you can explain why we have troops guarding oil wells, but didn't have troops protecting this museum

Because the oil in the ground is older than the junk in the museum?

Its amazing, reading this thread you would think this is'nt the way WARS usually go: pillage, looting etc... first the article itself is suspect and sounds similar to the whining trash on DU right now.

second ITS THE IRAQIS OWN FAULT, they DID THE LOOTING not ours.

third, the stuff isnt "gone forever" or destroyed as someone repeated three or four times. Most of it was probably fake anyway, replaced by Saddams museum curators.

[gomaaa]

This is a lot more serious than you might think. While I would agree that freedom is easily worth a price as high as this, I don't see why this price had to be payed at all. It's not my place to second guess Gen. Franks, but the museum and the library were major symbols of Iraqi heritage that they took great pride in. Iraq is where the first real cities were built and the first systems of writing emerged. This is FAR worse for them than it would be for us if the Statue of Liberty or the Washington Monument were to be destroyed. Those can be rebuilt. The artifacts are absolutely priceless. They can never be recreated and a lot of opportunity to learn more about the Mesopotamian civilizations has been lost in just a few days. While many of these artifacts may well be returned, most will be damaged. The truly old artifacts are far to fragile to survive. The library is a total loss. Ancient documents gone forever.

It is true that some of the citizens of Baghdad are doing this, but by taking the city and removing the previous system of authority, it became our responsibility to keep order. I don't think anyone predicted civil unrest on this order, but protecting important government offices and institutions should have been a priority. How are the trasportation system, mail delivery, police, and trash collection agencies supposed to get back on track without the mountains of necessary paperwork such as payroll records that keep such beauacracies alive? These things can be reconstructed, but it will take valuable time and require our troops to stay far longer than we might wish. The museum and library will NEVER be the same, and rightly or not, many Iraqis and other Arabs will blame us.

[Baseballguy]

This whole dilema on looting is not USA troops fault. It just shows humanity at is primal stage. I compare it to LA after the Simpson and Rodney King trials. Media makes such a big deal for nothing.

Its not our country's job to patrol. We are there to remove a threat to the USA and make sure nothing that could harm us is kept around.

The funny thing is most of the WMD will never get to the media cause they dont need to know, and we dont have to justify the war to the media.

[Fifth Business]

third, the stuff isnt "gone forever" or destroyed as someone repeated three or four times.

Please read through some of my previous posts on the topic. I don't have time to give a detailed reply right now. Suffice it to say, it is gone and most of it won't be recovered. And it was predictable and preventable.

[Gasshog]

Its most interesting to see the polarization of posters on this thread. Especially the statements that the looted musuem artifacts are worth more than human life.

There are some interesting types on Free Republic, one could almost see some left-of-center thinking here me thinks!

public education and liberal brainwash, well get over it in time.

[Fifth Business]

...one could almost see some left-of-center thinking here me thinks!

You must be thinking of the bleeding hearts who think not one American life should be risked to protect property.

[Gasshog]

A decade or so ago I might share your viewpoint

In the grand scheme of the things these relics arent doing anything to guide us to a better future.

Just the relics of a dead past. Liberal Scholary folks will not get Gubmint Grants to study them now. Pity.

[tsomer]

I suppose you're right. It was something I heard, never saw in print.

[Theresa]

But we are not talking about every hospital, office building and school. Just that one museum.

Torie said: "the suggestion that guarding that one museum would have degraded the military mission is really over the top." My sentiments too. And deeper than that, it occured to me that you can always evoke the worst case scenario. The effect is to make people feel gulity and supress criticism. I don't feel guilty for being critical and probing the question....What is worth dying for? It a good question to think about.

[Theresa]

"Especially the statements that the looted musuem artifacts are worth more than human life. "

Do I have to say it again? People risk their lives every day to protect property. I think it is a very conservative value. Bank guards and firemen and policemen risk their lives just to get stolen cars back. People risk their lives to create property, construction workers on high rise buildings, roofers, guys who work on radio towers. People who work with dangerous chemicals. In repressive countries people risk their lives to produce art and literatue that is contrary to the totalitarian regime. People risk their lives to steal property too.

[Aracelis]

You're actually making reconsider my initial reactions.

I hope you do reconsider, because as civil injustices are being righted by our very dear troops in Iraq, we also need to be mindful of the past and where we came from. Knowing who and what we are is just as important as releasing those pitiful children from Saddam's prisons, else the whole reason for our compassion becomes simply an exercise we decided to do today...instead of having a long history of "loving our neighbor" despite the evil despots that seize control from time to time. Ancient knowledge is our birthright as human beings.

[Theresa]

I am watching John Gibson on FOX. The director of the NYC museum in on. They are showing pictures of the Iraq museum before the looting. It is magnificent. Now it is a huge empty shack. The NYC director said it is "terrifying" what happend. All the gold objects will be melted down...All is lost.

Rummy and Franks let this happen. I hate it. I can't look at either of them anymore. This is contemptable neglect. I can't believe I am saying this...I am a a conservative, I am a hawk and I love the military but this is contemptable.

[Theresa]

The museum director said it was as if someone cleaned out the Smithsonian.

[WOSG]

Quick question: how many of the museum staff risked their lives to save these things? how many got injured fighting off looters? -- Probably none. Now, how many were injured or killed attempting to overthrow Saddam? None, you say? Well, I guess by your logic we should not have liberated them.

It is said God helps those who help themselves. Why do expect more from Marines than you expect from God Himself? THe museaum staff had the ability to do something. They didnt. They failed. Why arent you blaming them?

[WOSG]

And your MO is to blame Marines for not doing what they not trained to do when they are busy doing something else, namely fighting firefights, instead of holding responsible those for whom it *is* their responsiblity and have the knowledge and ability to do something about it (viz, museum staff), but didnt.

Why are you treating Iraqis as irresponsible babies without any moral culpability at all in these events? They did the looting after all!

[WOSG]

Enough with the insults.
There was no negligence by soldiers because they were not responsible - the looters were - and our military is not a police force and cannot be expected to create instant safety and happiness after 35 brutal years of dictatorship and grinding poverty and 20 days of violence and war; and the story needs investigation to see who really did the looting and how to get the stuff back. both are true.

I mourn the thefts, but not as much as I mourn the loss of 120 brave Americans who gave their lives so Iraq could be free and our nation could feel safer.

Jeez, seeing these anti-military whines over this event after the most succesful war in our lifetimes, it really proves the point: NO Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

[Aracelis]

Rummy and Franks let this happen. I hate it. I can't look at either of them anymore. This is contemptable neglect. I can't believe I am saying this...I am a a conservative, I am a hawk and I love the military but this is contemptable.

I grieve with you...I've heard that the cuneiform tablets were made of unfired clay...their loss alone is incalculable.