GaryP

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two cultural advisers to the Bush administration have resigned in protest over the failure of U.S. forces to prevent the wholesale looting of priceless treasures from Baghdad's antiquities museum. Martin Sullivan, who chaired the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property for eight years, and panel member Gary Vikan said they resigned because the U.S. military had had advance warning of the danger to Iraq (news - web sites)'s historical treasures.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...antiquities_dc

Chicle-Treat

How soon before those two get demonized?

Soyin Milka

They've be called unpatriotic armchair generals on forums already.
It's hard to face the fact some of these artefacts survived two world wars and countless other conflicts, including the Iran-Irak war and the first gulf war to finally be destroyed after an american military victory.

I'm still in denial about it.
There was no war in Irak.

Soyin

Zar

Soyin,

That is a poignant and depressing observation.

Ruy Lopez

I'm still in denial about it.
There was no war in Irak.

I know what you mean but let me dish out another meaning.

After destroying a substantial chunk of the Iraqi army in 1991; preventing it from rearming for 12 years through sanctions; applying weapons inspections and spying; destroying further any weaponry that could be done so legally;--the US/UK knew exactly the what, where and when of Iraq's military.

Saddam or his soldiers did something right; they chose not to fight and rather escape.

That was no war; it was pre-meditated murder.

The antiquities we all care about did not amount to much in the minds of Bush and the war planners--they're barbarians you know.

Zar

That much seems clear. Mr. Rumsfeld calls the wholesale looting and destruction "freedom" and laughs it off in his typical style. Statements like that from him are so perverted and sick they leave me speechless.

GaryP

I just heard on a local talk show that Maureen Dowd quoted "Rummy" as saying, "They were just a couple of old pots".

Did anyone else hear/see this, or better yet source it?

Zar

Perhaps Dowd is referring to the statements by Rumsfeld that the newsmedia kept showing the same scene of a vase being stolen over and over. So, based on this, he took the attitude that really there is no looting and its just a couple of pots. I found a reference in Buzzflash to this. I'm sure there are others. But anyway I witnessed this Rumsfeld briefing on television myself, so I know it happened.

This is really a vicious lie. Since when is some crappy cable channel the main source of U.S. intelligence? The very idea that Rumsfeld and Co. only spent enough mental energy on this issue to watch it on cable a few times belies their boorish and cavalier attitude. But the major media, in their steadfast role, provide the shred of evidence he needs -- the silliness of showing the same video loop over and over -- to ridicule and silence critics.

GaryP

Thanks, Zar.

I kinda doubt the media is deliberately trying to soften the effect of the looting. But I do think that most shows I've seen have taken the attitude, "Well What in the world could the US have done to prevent it?"

And also the evidence that there seems to have been some professional thieves is played up to sound as if the US military just would have been no match for them. (Apparently, depleted uranium ammunition is no match for glass cutters!
)

Another factor is probably that we Americans don't appreciate history as much as those in the "Old World". Maybe because we are such a young country and the rest of the world sees the past as their "glory days".

fatherphil

what resposibility do the citizens/looters themselves bear?
or even saddam? at least hitler had the sensibility to safeguard his nation's treasures during wartime. why wasn't saddam so thoughtful in regards with such a precious bounty to his people?