Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure

New York Times ^ | April 12, 2003 | JOHN F. BURNS

[FRgal4u]

how about telling Mr. Bush, thanks, you just help us to start a new chapter in our nation's history - democracy, rule by the people - instead of by emperors and thugs...

i feel sorry for their loss in national treasures, but they can't blame this all on us...we could have send in a JDAM from the skies and end it all, but we didn't...the looters are the irqis themselves...so shall we say, the iraqi people finally get back their own history, their processions from the ages??

[syriacus]

Mr. Muhammad, the archaeologist, directed much of his anger at President Bush. "A country's identity, its value and civilization resides in its history," he said. "If a country's civilization is looted, as ours has been here, its history ends.

I agree that this is very sad. But most of Iraq's people still have their lives and Iraq's history has not ended.

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[remitrom]

Who is looting, Armericans or Iraqis? Who are the thieves of anarchy, the liberators or the liberatered? Why not blame the Iraqis who are destroying their own heritage. Blame yourselves and your religion of peace, you savages.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

THE ARAB STREET FINALLY EMERGES!

Semper Fi,

[headsonpikes]

"...Iraq's history has not ended."

Nor has its antiquities disappeared from the earth.

This stuff is all plunder, many times over.

[Barnacle]

AGHDAD, Iraq, April 12

This is serious indeed. They’ve even stripped a letter from the capitol city. ?;^)

[muawiyah]

Little was known of the ancient civilizations on exhibit in that Iraqi museum outside of the Bible and the Koran until about a century ago.

This was not "their civilization" - it was rather the common heritage of humanity. No doubt there's more in the ground to be dug up.

This experience demonstrates why antiquities should never be left in just the home country - as discovered they need to be spread around so that a single event can't destroy all of the materials.

The looters will probably take as good care of the antiquities as did the museum keepers - maybe better! All we have here is a change of ownership - not the destruction of the materials, and appropriate funding plus information from the catalogs will enable the exhibits to be put back together (in time).

[The Old Hoosier]

democracy, rule by the people - instead of by emperors and thugs...

You and Mr. Bush seem to have an awful high opinion of these people. I think their disgraceful actions of the last few days demonstrate that Iraqis--most of them anyway--are unfit for self-rule.

[muawiyah]

Obviously you never bothered to have a serious discussion with anyone who'd ever spent most of a lifetime inside a totalitarian dictatorship.

Time to get out, move around, find some folks - lots of them living in various parts of Indiana!

The Iraqi people are acting quite bravely. The secret police are not all gone away and combat persists here and there. Speaking out can still get you killed.

I think they are all quite ready for self-rule. Certainly they have all got to be tired of one-man rule.

[JoeFromCA]

Actually few if any of these priceless artifacts will ever be found. Similar looting occurred after the Gulf War, with thousands of items stolen, and only about 4 were ever found. A few items will find their way into private collections, but most will simply be used and abused until they disappear, if not melted down or disassembled for trinket value. These items did not represent Arabic or Muslim history, but rather represented the history of the world.

[Squantos]

I think there was a King in England that had the same opinion of us in the late 1700's....... BTW I'm of the opinion that if it was in that Museam and Saddam left it there.....it had zero value to anyone.

Stay Safe !!

[mrsmith]

"Pillagers"- at last the reporters are referring to the Baath Party accurately.

Or perhaps the reporters have never heard of a planned museum robbery.

[ambrose]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the valuables were probably stolen by the museum staff and directors, and they're using the looters to deflect blame. I read elsewhere that most of the valuables were kept behind locked vaults.

[American Soldier]

Ancient history museums are by definition traffickers in stolen property. Now somebody else has stolen the stuff. Turnabout is fair play. Life will go on, the sun will come up tomorrow.

[DensaMensa]

}Why not blame the Iraqis who are destroying their own heritage. Blame yourselves and your religion of peace, you savages.

I'm guessing it's an inside job, and not to preserve heritage, but for plunder. There is little reason to believe the current Iraqis are the true offspring of the ancients there. People moved around faaaaaaaar too much between then and now to conclude that IMHO.

Between the endless wars and changes in climate, maybe no one on earth is at the place of their distant ancestors.

[Russian Sage]

A full accounting of what has been lost may take weeks or months. The museum had been closed during much of the 1990's, and like many Iraqi institutions, its operations were cloaked in secrecy under Mr. Hussein.

Hmmm.  Am I the only one to suspect that there might not have been much there when the looters arrived?

[Jeff Chandler]

E-BAy

[Conservative4Ever]

Officials with crumpled spirits fought back tears and anger at American troops, as they ran down an inventory of the most storied items that they said had been carried away by the thousands of looters who poured into the museum after daybreak on Thursday and remained until dusk on Friday, with only one intervention by American troops, lasting about half an hour, at lunchtime on Thursday.

When did it become a job description of our military to protect Iraqi property? I thought Iraqi's were supposed to be taking their country back...that means to protect it too. It is a shame that the museum was ransacked, but h*ll, they have got to learn sometime to act responsibly.

Red