[Puppage]

big deal, so we broke a bunch of stupid clay pots."

And, just how many US lives are YOU willing to lose the protect those "pots"?

Sure, I agree that in the interest of history & such, that it would wonderful to have saved them. HOWEVER, it is secondary to the removal of Saddam & his thugs.

Ya thinks it's POSSIBLE, that all this crying about the museum is coming from those on the left because there's NOTHING ELSE THEY CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT, OR TAKE ISSUE WITH?

[cicero's_son]

I'm not on the Left, but I think the looting of that museum was a tragedy.

Don't make the same mistake the Left does, boiling everything down to scoring political points or defending our goal. Conservatives care about history and culture, as we should. It's one of the things that distinguishes us from the Left, which always wins when people are cut off from their past. After all, who are the great culture-destroyers of the 20th century? Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot...

[N8VTXNinWV]

"Ya thinks it's POSSIBLE, that all this crying about the museum is coming from those on the left because there's NOTHING ELSE THEY CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT, OR TAKE ISSUE WITH?"



BINGO!!

[sarasota]

I agree with you completely. What's more important: clay pots or human beings? And in the end, the looting on the museum was an inside job. Tough nouggies.

[handy]

Ya thinks it's POSSIBLE, that all this crying about the museum is coming from those on the left because there's NOTHING ELSE THEY CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT, OR TAKE ISSUE WITH?

yes

BTW, I could not care less about a bunch of clay pots, muslim writings & whatevere else was in the museum. They can torch the whole collection & it won't affect my life.

But cutting taxes on dividends is something I do care about...

[philosofy123]

The tragedy has nothing to do with saving US soldiers. The cultural advisors in Washington have been to the Pentagon half a dozen times, identifying the sensitive areas in Iraq for the military to be aware of, and protect. One single American soldier firing in the air could have prevented the looters. It was on TV, the American soldiers standing by with loaded machine guns, and watching the looters destroy the antiquity museum, and other buildings. The picture was clear, the soldiers were ordered not to interfere, and the commanders ignored the cultural advisors requests/orders. That is the reason for President Bush cultural advisor resignation to protest this negligence.

Reasonable people should feel sorry for our mistake, and request an investigation in the defense department decision making. Heads MUST roll in the military pecking order to illustrate to the rest of the world that we have no room in our military for negligence.

[newcats]

And, just how many US lives are YOU willing to lose the protect those "pots"?

Not as many as protecting the Ministry of Oil building apparently.

[MightyMouseToSaveThe Day]

I agree with you, Puppage. You hit the nail on the head. Of course the liberals need to complain about SOMETHING since applauding a victory is not within their maturity level.

I have a liberal sister who had obviously read the Talking Points memo because she started on me about how Bush had just stood by and allowed these antiquities to be looted blah blah blah. And how priceless and precious these antiquities were and at least under Saddam they were preserved. And that the US should have parked tanks in front of the museum

So, I replied with the following points:
1. Saddam was responsible for murdering millions of innocent people, and those people were also "priceless and precious".
2. I sent her every article i could find that showed the museums hadn't been open to the public in about a decade, that there was some evidence that Saddam had taken the best for himself long ago, that the looting of artifacts was largely the work of professional thieves with the cooperation of inside operators, and that the museums also displayed mostly reproductions, and that the staff really didn't know how much had actually been stolen during the war and unable to quantify because of the aforegoing factors.
3) Her idea that the US should have parked tanks in front of the museum presupposes that everyone KNEW which building would be hit by professional thieves (and if that's the case, then there would be no more burglary in the world because we could just park a guard in front of the building that was targeted for theft, duh), and that Baghdad has thousands of buildings and was she suggesting that tanks be parked in front of each of those thousands of buildings?

She dropped the subject after that. And in typical liberal fashion, said she "wouldn't discuss it anymore and for me not to bring it up again". haha. victory is mine! :-)

And I have to confess something to you all. This is new behavior for me. For years I've kept quiet when she's spouted off because she rants and raves and starts with the name-calling (yes, I love her, but not her political views--she really is a typical liberal)and I never knew how to respond to her. I'd just get so mad and not be able to hold my own in a kind of rational debate (not that she's rational in her non-debate, for that matter).

But thanks to FR, and I mean this most sincerely, I now feel confident enough to express my viewpoints in a (fairly) cohesive and articulate manner. so, a great big thank you to all FReepers for the wonderful discussions that have expanded my debating abilities! :-)

[Twinkie]

Generally speaking, it's likely that the run of the mill ordinary Iraqi citizen didn't have the time or the money
that the Iraqi elite did to pay the museum admission fee
and spend hours emoting over the pots and shards of
pottery that had once belonged to their ancestors. So,
feeling a bit slighted from years of deprivation, maybe
they, rightly or wrongly, decided to reclaim the pots and
bowls that had been in great-great-great-great-great-great
etc. grammammas kitchen centuries ago.

[Twinkie]

Generally speaking, it's likely that the run of the mill ordinary Iraqi citizen didn't have the time or the money
that the Iraqi elite did to pay the museum admission fee
and spend hours emoting over the pots and shards of
pottery that had once belonged to their ancestors. So,
feeling a bit slighted from years of deprivation, maybe
they, rightly or wrongly, decided to reclaim the pots and
bowls that had been in great-great-great-great-great-great
etc. grammammas kitchen centuries ago.

[Mark17]

Ya thinks it's POSSIBLE, that all this crying about the museum is coming from those on the left because there's NOTHING ELSE THEY CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT, OR TAKE ISSUE WITH?

Yes it is possible. I think it would have been nice to save it, but I think there was still a fight going on too.

[DreamWeaver]

" big deal, so we broke a bunch of stupid clay pots."

And, just how many US lives are YOU willing to lose the protect those "pots"?

That is not the point, I agree that of course human lives are more important, but to make that statement, "so we broke a few clay pots," shows just plain ignorance on Hanitty's part.

BTW, that is not the only ignorant statement he has made. And to think I used to really admire this guy. I haven't for a long time now.