fatherphil

remember, everything that was looted will be available for a price. this is just a redistribution of the wealth. historically armies care more about fighting than civil control.

i was wondering where the mp's were? war is a tough job, hopefully peace will be better than this inauspicious start

Daggah

Rick, that's precisely the point I've been making (and you've been avoiding). They obviously were capable of policing certain sites...that's precisely what they did in front of the Iraqi Oil Ministry, and arguably with a larger force than was necessary to do the job! They can defend the oil ministry, but not the museum or the hospitals?

What kind of message do you think that sends to the Iraqi people regarding our intent?

Soyin Milka

Hi,

I hope I won't sound like I'm picking on you Phil. I like to read your posts most of the time. But I disagree with that statement of yours.

Many of the artefacts in the museum have been destroyed because they had become associated to Saddam Hussein as part of his "cult of personality". A curator said museum artefacts had been destroyed by looters, often teenagers, because to them the were just like other "regime symbols".

Also, it brings little comfort to the hospital patients to know that the disinfectant, antibiotics and pain-killers they need now will eventually be available for a price again.

All this looting was a tragedy.

Soyin

Cap'n Jack

Not to be rude, but there was a lot of looting after the earth quakes in CA a few years back. The Police force there weren't quite enough of a deterant.

Enlighten Me

Yes, but hospitals, libraries, and museums were not being looted. Oh, well---maybe we'll know better when we liberate
Syria, Saudi Arabia, and N. Korea....

SULPHUR

The situations cannot be compared

Ut

In the last decade, there has been rioting and looting every time a Canadian team has been in the Stanley Cup Finals (in 1993 in Montreal and in 1997 (?) in Vancouver)

Cap'n Jack

Its a shame where ever it happens, I guess that the lack of any value outside of the hospitals, libraries, and museums may have encouraged people to loot those places over the poorer areas of Iraq, as in CA when the looters went after the valuable areas, shops with expensive items in them. I'd guess that the shear length of time it takes to prepare for millitary action may leave bush at the end of his term in office, with a less war hungry candidate up for offer.

Soyin Milka

HEH!

That reminds me, I was there. On some parts of Sainte-Catherine street, all the shops had been looted, with one notable exception: Libraries. Electronic equipment and video games had been stolen, but apparently books had little value to looters. Some people suggested disguising shops as libraries as a deterrent to looting after that

Soyin

Optional

DrRick...

That's kinda the point. It may very well have been impossible to protect anything given the force structure they had available. I don't blame the troops on the ground for any of this.

Howver, it was most definitely NOT impossible to anticipate the need and make sure the means were available, and that is precisely what did NOT happen. They could have flooded the city with MPs just as soon as fighting was done, in each section of the city. They could have made hospitals&museums&etc be mission goals, to get to them and throw a cordon of MPs around them before looting occurred.

They did not do that. And part of the reason they didn't was Rummy's insistence on a small force. For THAT... I blame.

-me