1. The museum announced publicly that they had procedures to protect the artifacts in time of war, which included moving the items to a secure location. If I were Centcom I would have assumed they did just that.
2. The Marines were taking fire from the building at the time the looting started.
3. A great mamny of the artifacts were removed from underground vaults, which required a KEY to open. It is unclear if those vaults were opened before or during the looting, but it definitely indicates inside help with the removal of the artifacts.
3. Numerous articles in archaeological publications have discussed the fact that Saddam had removed many items prior to the war and replaced them with copies.
4. The rules of engagement included not firing on civilians.
5. Over 40 items were seized at the Jordanian border from JOURNALISTS.
6. In no other conflict has the native citizenry looted their own museums.
7. This is a LARGE complex and would have required more than a couple of soldiers with rifles to defend it.
8. For those who think that artifacts are more precious than human life, I will keep your names in mind when the artifacts are offered in trade for American lives by some radical Islamacist.
If the Iraqi people don't value their own heritage, why should US soliders put their lives at risk doing so? As I stated before, neither the Japanese nor the Germans ever looted their museums after WWII.
At the expense of which strategic objective?