Troops were told to guard treasures

The Washington Times ^ | Paul Martin

[wideminded]

KUWAIT CITY — In a memo sent two weeks before the fall of Baghdad, the Pentagon office charged with rebuilding Iraq urged top commanders of U.S. ground forces to protect the Iraqi National Museum and other cultural sites from looters.

"Coalition forces must secure these facilities in order to prevent looting and the resulting irreparable loss of cultural treasures," says the March 26 memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), led by retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, sent the five-page memo to senior commanders at the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC).

Two weeks later, American forces pulled down the giant statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad to cheering crowds, and in the days that followed, looters pillaged Baghdad.

The museum was No. 2 on a list of 16 sites that ORHA deemed crucial to protect. Financial institutions topped the list, including the Iraqi Central Bank, which is now a burned-out shell filled with twisted metal beams from the collapse of the roof and all nine floors under it.

"We asked for just a few soldiers at each building, or if they feared snipers, then just one or two tanks," said an angry ORHA official, one of several who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for CFLCC, the Kuwait-based branch of Central Command that is in charge of coalition ground forces, was not familiar with the memo. He agreed to pass a request for comment up the chain of command.

[wideminded]

I think it is generally acknowledged that The Washington Times is a conservative paper. Don't know if they are still owned by the Moonies.

[wideminded]

ping

[verity]

said an angry ORHA official, one of several who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity.

Typical REMF.

[kabar]

It is one thing to have an objective, but you also must have the capability to achieve it. Wihout knowing the exact timeline, I would suspect that our primary mission was to eliminate the hostile forces defending Baghdad. Once that is basically achieved, then you can move on to specific objectives. This story won't die because there is a political agenda behind it.

[The Other Harry]

This story won't die because there is a political agenda behind it.

Maybe so. But the looting is also a travesty that could (and should) have been prevented.

[facedown]

This story won't die because there is a political agenda behind it.

Bingo!

[wku man]

Exactly. REMFs wouldn't understand that those one or two tanks just might be needed to fight elsewhere. Not that it mattered, because British scientists have already said the real artifacts were long gone, and replaced with fakes.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

If guarding the treasures of Baghdad were topic A, I think we'd have heard about it before now (with all the talking ex-military heads, embedded reporters, etc).
Someone reported a lot of the looting was by insiders. The large scale removal of antiquities most likely happened before the US and UK got there.

[Henk]

But the looting is also a travesty that could (and should) have been prevented.

Give me a break. Of all the things which could have gone horribly wrong in this war, all the Left has is the looting of a museum to whine about. Don't fall for this BS. If the military had prevented the looting, they would be crying about the water, or the power, or the lack of TV, or who knows. But they would have found something to bash Bush with.

[DainBramage]

Our troops guarded the greatest treasure the Iraqi's have, their citizens. They put themselves

in harms way and some even gave their lives to free them.

I'm sick of whiners insinuating that stopping a burglery of a museum is more important to Iraq

than what our troops than what they actually did stop. JMHO

[DainBramage]

than what our troops actually did stop.

[johniegrad]

The other part about this is that everyone in Iraq knew that military action was coming. This "rush to war" took 14 months. It's not like they couldn't have taken precautions during that 14 months for these items. Couple that with the fact that the SH regime in Baghdad was less of a governmental organization than a crime syndicate. I think it's entirely possible and maybe even likely that there was a conspiracy to leave these items unprotected so that insiders could pilfer them and funnel the proceeds back to the the top governmental criminals in exile. I really don't think that's a farfetched scenario at all given the way they sequestered all of Iraq's wealth away for themselves anyway.

[Fifth Business]

Thanks for the ping. Very interesting. I hope they discuss this on the Sunday morning news shows.

[kellynla]

Been kinda busy here but has anyone asked the question, "how do we know there were any artifacts in the museum to begin with." How do we know that Saddam Huseein didn't replace everything with fakes? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm This whole story about the museum has gotten very, very tired. Since when are people more interested in stuff than lives? How many lives did we save this day, week, month? Semper Fi

[DCPatriot]

Does the movie "3 Kings" mean anything around here?

That was the film starring George "Looney" Clooney, Mark Walhburg, and Iced Tea about American soldiers that raided the treasures of a Middle Eastern dictator.

Don't be fooled. Those treasures were not looted by Iraqi citizens, but probably by Museum staff.

[error99]

I here there were some really good ( __fill in the blank__ )
that our guys should have risked their lives for too!
What about the zoo! Don't forget the zoo!

[PLMerite]

Exactly. People forget that Baghdad could quite easily have looked like Berlin '45.

Or Hiroshima.

[edwin hubble]

The loss of the valuable items was an inside job, because it was done with the use of keys only held by museum staff.

It was probably done by Ba'athists and completed before the city even 'fell' to US forces.

There was little we could have done.

[WellsFargo94]

These people that are upset about the "treasures" need to put things in perspective. Many Iraqi and American lives have been spared as a result of great planning and terrific execution of this war. Get over it already!

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Maybe so. But the looting is also a travesty that could (and should) have been prevented.

When you are up to you’re a$$ in alligators, it is sometimes hard to remember that your goal was to drain the swamp.

Even a handful of tanks and support troops for 16 sites, is heck of a big job while being fired upon.