[cake_crumb]

"I'd say that there wasn't shi* in that museum."

I'd have to say I agree.

"The value of these things is in what we SEE and what we know about what we are seeing."

You got that right, and therein lies the problem.

The problem with the artifacts alleged to be stolen by the 'curator' is that there is no way to confirm the veracity of her claims....and that's if you optimistically figure the museaum MIGHT have had a third of the number of artifacts she claims were stolen.

The idea of priceless historical treasures irrevokably lost has now been planted in the public mind....which was apparently the whole plan. Even though it's far more likely that the items stolen were more along the lines of desk chairs, air conditioners and maybe computers, an urban legend similar in scope to that of the Necronomicon has now been born. It's probably gonna grow all by itself; movies will be made about some hero recovering some one-of-a-kind Uric text....and the US will continually be blamed for the imagined losses of unimaginable treasures. Sad.

[Knither]

Before questioning the veracity of the curator, it might help to consider the culture/history on this: the Brits are the ones who saw the antiquities of Iraq as valuable to the world and encouraged such things as museums (also schools, hospitals, and all other modern, western ideas)when they controlled the area way back when. The people over there wouldn't necessarily value a museum. (Keep in mind that many Moslems do not believe in any history before the Prophet, and many believe that ancient structures were put there by genies, etc.) Thus, they might see some of the 5,000 year old artifacts as just more stuff they could use or sell. It is a loss to the world that the museum was plundered, but it has nothing to do with coalition troops.

Now back to the main topic of this thread...