Comment: America will pay for lost treasures (barforama)

http://www.mysanantonio.com/ ^ | 04/20/2003 | Bryce Milligan

[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.

[nopardons]

Whoever wrote this codswallop has NEVER been to the British Museum, the Met, the Oriental Institute, and hasn't the foggiest idea of what was taken, nor when, in Baghdad !

The egregious exaggerations ( please, someone tell this cretin that what was " lost ", was more than probably sold / being sold and is still extant ; not to mention the wee fact that it is also far less valuable than any one side room, of the things she equates being destroyed[ ecept the Library at Alexandria,which happened millennia ago ! ]in other repositories. ) onlt could be written by some dithering cretin, who imagines that the Iraqi people are of no value at all, compared to a few fakes/copies and paintings, which aren't ancient at all.

[Swordmaker]

...he has been a folksinger/songwriter, a maker of guitars, drums and dulcimers, a carpenter, a rare book bibliographer and appraiser, a college English and creative writing instructor, a poet-in-the-schools, director of the country's only 4-year high school creative writing program,. an arts administrator, a book and magazine editor, a book designer, and a publisher. As a writer, he has been a newspaper columnist, a freelance journalist, a scholar, a novelist, a poet, a playwright, and an essayist.

So, he can't keep a job?

Looking at that list, perhaps he really IS a total incompetent.

If he keeps trying, maybe he'll find something he is good at. Editorial opinion writing is the next thing he can add to is "Tried that, failed that" list.

[nopardons]

OMG ... the author is a man and THAT is what he looks like ?

[judgeandjury]

And then we stood by and watched as 7,000 years of artifacts were looted from the National Museum of Iraq.

The Iraqi authorities also stood by and did nothing to stop the looting. Makes me wonder why.

[patriciaruth]

A hundred generations from now, our heirs will curse us

Someone with the ability to see 2000 years into the future should be declared a national treasure...

not

not

not

in Japan.

[patriciaruth]

I probably would have violated all my own moral convictions about violence: I would have taken human life to protect these antiquities

Yeah, and Bill Clinton is in the next trench with a rifle fighting for the Israelis.

This guy probably bought Global Crossing stock.

[patriciaruth]

Unlike any libs cursing anyone today for what happened September 11th, 2001.

How come this guy didn't weep about all the artwork incinerated and crushed in the World Trade Center on 9/11?

[patriciaruth]

If we have managed to prevent the nuking of Washington, D.C., and the irreparable loss of our cultural treasures in the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian (not to mention the many little museums in D.C. some of which I have actually been to, like ones that contain Shakespearean treasures and Renoir's Boating Party, for example) then we have justified this war, regardless of whether the Ba'ath party looted their museum in anticipation of this war.

And I agree that the really good stuff will turn up again, although maybe not in our lifetime, but after some Saudi prince or Japanese magnate dies.

[Bigg Red]

"Personally, I would gladly have laid down my life..

Well, Bryce, why don't you hunt down the perps then? What's stopping you?

[Publius6961]

A hundred generations from now?

Oh my!

[Bigg Red]

You and I were thinking alike here. That was my first response, although yours is much better stated. Perhaps you should e-mail the clymer your suggestions.

[Bigg Red]

Let him enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

I doubt the Marines would take a piece of clinton like him.

[Bigg Red]

A brilliant satirist wrote that description of the clymer Milligan, right? Is this so stereotypical of the left, or what? Right down to the photo!

[Bigg Red]

Perhaps they would like another 911 in their own backyard.

No, lady, chances are Bryce believes in the brilliant political theories espoused by that semi-literate, ex-con poet laureate in NJ. (Cf: "Who blowed up the Towers?")

[jordan8]

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.
Sure you would, sport.

This is hubris, the kind of pride that presages the fall of a civilization.
Well, this civilization certainly is falling, but that is mostly due to the fact that we tolerate the continued presence and influence of people like you.

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.
Huh?

[mewzilla]

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.

Talk is cheap.