Posted on 04/20/2003 5:47:15 PM PDT by chasio649
There are some cultural crimes that transcend mere human concerns like life, liberty and the pursuit of oil. Today, we mourn a loss that beggars the imagination. A hundred generations from now, our heirs will curse us for what happened in Baghdad on April 11-12, 2003.
The origins of the war in Iraq may have really been the cruelty of the Saddam Hussein regime; they may have been simple revenge or pure capitalist greed. It doesn't matter. The fact is, Saddam did not start this war — we did, and that fact imposed certain responsibilities on us.
We took the most destructive force ever assembled and unleashed it on the Cradle of Civilization. And we did it so carefully. We only bombed the new palaces, we aimed our oh-so-brilliant bombs and missiles so as to avoid damaging any of the 10,000 known archaeological sites.
And then we stood by and watched as 7,000 years of artifacts were looted from the National Museum of Iraq. The treasures housed in this museum did not belong to Iraq alone; these were the oldest heirlooms of humanity. They belonged to every one of us.
According to the New York Times, American soldiers intervened at the museum only once, for half an hour, during a two-day binge of looting and bizarrely inexplicable destruction. Despite the desperate pleas of museum officials, soldiers refused to intervene further. Were they under orders to allow this madness? Who said it was permissible to kill thousands of innocent bystanders and not to stand our ground in front of a few looters?
The Geneva Convention is clear about the duties of an occupying force in regard to protecting cultural treasures. Is this why we continue to waffle on our official status? According to Gen. Vincent Brooks, American troops now consti-tute a "liberating force" — a term that has no legal definition and thus no responsibilities. It does not matter that it was Iraqis who did the looting. We created the situation that allowed it to happen, and then we did nothing to prevent it.
This loss is more significant than had the British Museum, the Louvre and the Smithsonian all burned to the ground at once. This loss is on a scale with the burning of the Library of Alexandria under the Romans; it outweighs the sacking of Rome. The destruction of the Anglo-Saxon monasteries under Henry VIII pales in comparison.
There is a special place in hell for those responsible for such crimes and for those in a position to prevent them before they occurred. President Bush had been advised by an international array of scholars months in advance of the consequences of not protecting this repository of the world's oldest artifacts relating to the development of writing and the first documented literary productions of the human mind. This is a war crime, because it is a crime against history itself.
Personally, I would gladly have laid down my life to ensure that future generations had access to these unique records of the beginnings of human culture. I probably would have violated all my own moral convictions about violence: I would have taken human life to protect these antiquities.
Every American officer who allowed this to happen should be held to account. This president should be held to account. But there will be no justice in this matter. No one will take responsibility. Bush will not even apologize. All our soldiers will come home as heroes.
This is hubris, the kind of pride that presages the fall of a civilization. We thought Sept. 11, 2001, was a tragedy; it was only the beginning. We so naively wondered why anyone could hate us enough to wreak such destruction on the innocent folk of New York.
By wantonly allowing the total destruction of the National Museum of Iraq we have given more than ample reason to untold generations of terrorists to spend their lives taking revenge on America. And this will not be limited to a Muslim jihad. This will be an international expression of disgust.
Way to go, Mr. Bush. Now the whole world has reason to despise us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bryce Milligan is a writer in San Antonio.
"[Sob, sniffle] This loss is more significant than had the British Museum, the Louvre and the Smithsonian all burned to the ground at once."
Dear Bryce,
Clearly you have an advanced case of syphillus of the brain.
Please contact the clinic for your long overdue high-dosage "experimental" prescription.
Good luck at the "undisclosed location" somewhere in Mexico...
*ROFL*...Eh? Sauropod, you've met Ivan...Ivan you've met sauropod? ;-P *ROFLMAO*
These treasures were not unique. There are others housed in museums and private collections around the world. There are books that describe these artifacts.
There are even more such items still in the ground gathering dust.
If the commoners were so anxious to clear the museum of valuable artifacts (anyone know how to traffick a black market relic for thousands of dollars?) why didn't they also loot the known historial sites? After all, any provonance that would come from taking an item from the museum would curse it by tagging it as "stolen".
If someone can sneak a fragile artifact out of the country, they could also smuggle out other more dangerous contraband. This gets no attention from the NY Times or other papers of record; they continue to question whether Saddam had any WMD.
A tart? Some limey's gonna get it in the mornin' for talkin' out of turn!!! *LOL*
It's a bank holiday (public holiday) in Ireland tomorrow because of Easter. No work for me!!! :-) Hence my nocturnal activity! :-)
This needs to be called what it was "a HEIST", not "looting".
Tea and crumpets? I think not! We have the (Canadian) PST and GST to pay....
Note that this is very soon after April 15th.... The annual raping of America.
I won't giggle, because I live in little ol' squeeze the blood life out of ye (if you are not a part of the welfare state) Ireland.
Toots, when you are payin' taxes like I have to smile through..I'll empathise! *LOL*
Do I get a free pass?
By Golly, that's a grand idea!
Ever hear of kiddie taxes? Taxes on imaginary capital gains?
I know the burden of which ye live under. We across the pond live under a similar burden.... It's just divvied up differently..
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