Large traces of Iraqi, world history wiped out

Al Jazeera ^ | April 14, 2003 | K S Dakshina Murthy

[Bluntpoint]

Yeah, right. You bought the complete set to just read the articles. You don't look at the pictures.

[Natural Law]

This assumes that the pillaged art and historical treasures were actually destroyed. This is an assumption I am not willing to accept. Anything of value will ultimately surface in an impoverished society. Given time and a few incentives the antiquities will return.

[annieokie]

Hey "Nabhal Amin"

IT'S JUST STUFF. THEY SKY IS NOT FALLING. WORTHLESS STUFF.

[Daus]

Just because the state run Museum no longer has it, doesn't mean it was destroyed. Think on it as 're-distribution of wealth'. Maybe even a just one, since most of these artifacts were probably claimed at gun point.

[mtbopfuyn]

We know people are hungry but what are they going to do with these antiquities," said Muhsen Kadhim, a museum guard for the last 30 years but who said he was overwhelmed by the number of looters

I'm into history more than the average Joe and yes it's a shame about the damage but we were over there fighting a WAR. Getting water and electricity going, and bringing in food and medical supplies comes before gold cups. Poor ol' Kadhim couldn't get outta his cushy chair he's been guarding for the past 3 decades to ask sobbing Nabbie for $5 out of petty cash to buy a gun. In another article it refered to some of those vaults as "secret vaults" which casts suspicion on the identity of some of the "looters". Nabbie knew for months her precious treasures might be harmed in a war so SHE should have shipped them away for safe keeping instead of blaming us. Besides, those treasures will eventually turn up on the black market or likely at some local street market or even be brought back. We did protect the museum; it wasn't bombed.

[Rabid Pig]

"Jeeze Al, did you guys care enough to write about Kuwait's antiquities being looted during the Gulf War? Probably not."

DUH!! Maybe that was because Al Jazeera did not even EXIST then?

[Billthedrill]

You don't look at the pictures.

Certainly not. I use it to practice my cuneiform translation.

"Bezarda gasped as Humtaza ripped the bodice from her trembling breasts..."

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Large traces of Iraqi, world history wiped out

On the bright side, "new" history is being created every day.

[Bluntpoint]

Now you did it, you made me go and ruin a perfect rack of lamb that we were going to have for dinner tonight!

Your words are so inciteful.

[PackerBoy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a crying shame when antiquities are lost to loss, theft, flood, fire or even war.

But am I the only one who holds Saddam Hussein responsible?

[michigander]

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the situation, the non-military situation, if you will, in Iraq and that is the whole issue of looting. This was the scene with the Museum of Antiquities, which housed treasures dating back thousands and thousands of years from the beginning of civilization. And it was ransacked and destroyed, about 170,000 items. The head of the museum said, “Our heritage is finished.” What happened there? How did we allow that museum to be looted?

SEC’Y RUMSFELD: “How did we allow?” Now, that’s really a wonderful, amazing statement. No, let me...

MR. RUSSERT: But, how are we...

SEC’Y RUMSFELD: ...just say a word, here.

MR. RUSSERT: No, no. Wait, wait.

SEC’Y RUMSFELD: Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

MR. RUSSERT: No, let me be precise, ‘cause it’s an important point.

SEC’Y RUMSFELD: But we didn’t allow it. It happened. And that’s what happens when you go from a dictatorship with repressed order, police state, to something that is going to be different. There’s a transition period, and no one is in control. There are periods where—there was still fighting in Baghdad. We don’t allow bad things to happen. Bad things do happen in life and people do loot. We’ve seen that in the United States. It’s happened in every country. It’s a shame when it happens. I’ll bet you anything that if they—when order is restored, and we have a more permissive environment, that there will be opportunities to ask people to return some of those things that were taken. We’ve already found people returning supplies to hospitals.

MR. RUSSERT: What the heads of the museum will say is that they actually asked for the U.S. to help protect it, and that the U.S. declined. Is that accurate?

SEC’Y RUMSFELD: Oh, my goodness. Look, I have no idea. We’ve got troops on the ground, and who do you know who he asked, and whether his assignment that moment was to guard a hospital instead? Those kinds of things are so anecdotal. And it always breaks your heart to see destruction of things. But...

MR. RUSSERT: The Red Cross said hospitals were also looted. Does that surprise you? I mean, it’s one thing for the Iraqis to ransack, loot Saddam’s palaces, and steal his faucets, it’s quite another to loot their own museum and their own hospitals. Did that surprise you?

SEC’Y RUMSFELD: Surprise me? I don’t know. Disorder happens every time there’s a transition. We saw it in Eastern European countries when they moved from the Communist system to a free system. We’ve seen it in Los Angeles, here in our own country, we’ve seen it in Detroit, we’ve seen it in city after city when there was a difficulty. And it always breaks your heart. You’re always sorry to see it.

And it isn’t something that someone allows or doesn’t allow. It’s something that happens. We know that people—there are people who do bad things. There are people who steal from hospitals in the United States. So does it surprise me that people went into a hospital and did something? I guess it doesn’t surprise me. It’s a shame. It’s too bad. And we’re trying to get medical supplies in to the hospitals that were robbed, and we’re doing it, and we’re having good success at it.

[mewzilla]

Did you see anyone else making a stink about it, then?

[Question_Assumptions]

This really is an archaeological disaster. If the US troops had protected anything, I which they had protected these museums.

[Lee Heggy]

The real fine artifacts were excavated back in the early 20s by British Archaeologist Leonard Woolley. The finest pieces are outside of Iraq in museums all over the world. That's not to say that the material in the National Museum in Baghdad wasn't beautiful and very important. It's hardly a total loss. The international trade in artifacts has tightened up considerably in the last decade or so. Trade in looted or forged items is very risky and not many people try it. The one's that do are known to Interpol and other agencies.

[Yankee]

I file this under "Liberal's U.S. outrage of the day".

[Cyber Liberty]

What's a "Large trace"? Is that like a Jumbo Shrimp?

[WaveThatFlag]

Rabid Pig signed up 4/9/3, and that was his first and only post. Ignore him.

[Democratshavenobrains]

I file this under "Liberal's U.S. outrage of the day".

Funny that these so called "history lovers" want to deemphasize the history of our country, i.e. white slaveholding males.

[Wake Up America]

Saddam IS responsible.
Instead of leaving the country when he was
given the chance.
He chose to stay.
Bringing terrible ruin to Iraq.
A leader or person in power 'should' love their country and their countrymen.
But, Saddam showed he hated the country and the countrymen.
I think he was insane, not just evil.
The report of him being afraid of germs was telling,
[not liking to be touched by another human being].

[WaveThatFlag]

Was this written in verse?