Oh man, I was going to say a little something about this funeral for Human Civilization™, but Treacher beat me to it with one succinct, perfect sentence. I'll just be over here fiddling with my blog, pay no attention...
Though seriously, I'd like to address one issue that no one seems to be talking about much -- probably because that would mean treating the citizens of Baghdad like human beings instead of Helpless Victims/Zombies Rampant. Where were the curators of the ransacked and looted museum before the coalition forces drove into the city and the authorities, such as they were, skedaddled to wherever? What were they thinking? Were they so bemused by the hallucinogenic rantings of Baghdad Bob that they were absolutely sure that the Americans et al would be turned to dust before ever setting foot within the city's environs, and therefore never even gave a thought to their "national treasures" -- such as taking the precaution of tucking at least the more valuable and easily transported bits into the vaults? These museums do have vaults, don't they?
Or was there something else taking up room in the vaults, so that not even a necklace or a cuneiform tablet could be squeezed? Things such as -- oh, I don't know, cannisters of nerve gas, or explosives, or guns, or something. Who knows -- everyone is too busy crying over the theft of the artifacts to wonder why they were still sitting in their glass cases instead of being stored away. I also wonder how many relatives of the museum's personnel were among the "thieves and looters," but then I have a nasty suspicious mind...
Posted by Andrea Harris at April 14, 2003 01:34 AMWondering exactly the same thing... but I'm chicken shit, so I was waiting for someone ELSE to comment on it. grin
Posted by: Ren at April 14, 2003 at 01:49 AMA couple of the articles I've read seem to indicate that it was an inside job.
But you know, Saddam's hiding places are starting to get ridiculously easy to find. I mean, it's starting to be EXPECTED that schools and hospitals have weapons.
My guess? All the WMD's are stored in the Puppy Hospitals.
Posted by: Alex Knapp at April 14, 2003 at 01:50 AMAccording to what I've seen, the vaults were OPEN. Not broken open by a mob of looters, just open. I wonder how much of the valuable stuff was actually taken by looters.
Posted by: Gary Utter at April 14, 2003 at 02:06 AMI notice the blogger retails that stupid canard that too few troops were sent, because that mean old Rummy and stupid Dubya didn't listen to the Generals. Before the campaign, when there was speculation about plans and the suggestions of the light forces plan a la Afghanistan were bruited about, I read that Franks' plan was for a force of five divisions. When I read the order of battle just before the campaign Franks had three full divisions, the British who were the equivalent of a division, two brigades of Marines and a brigade of Airborne, which is the equivalent of another division. That makes five; it sounds to me like Franks got what he was asking for. Some people criticized this OB for lack of heavy armor formations, but if the main battle was to be that of Baghdad you would want an infantry heavy force, such a force being more suited to urban warfare than are armored divisions. Finally, Franks has been reinforced by the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division, but the campaign went so fast despite the lack of tank formations that this division is coming into line only at the very end of the campaign. The criticisms of the plan as inadequate are false.
One reason for the US forces not being able to control the looting is that they have been ordered not to use deadly force against the looters. Shooting some looters is a good way to get others to stop. The US troops are forbidden to do that. What atrocity stories do you suppose we would read if the US troops use force to prevent looting, and that from the same media sources deploring the lack of US prevention of looting?
Posted by: Michael Lonie at April 14, 2003 at 02:08 AMHmm... interesting. Was this seen on teevee, or are there links to sites on this? Feel free to post urls -- either plain, or use "a href" etc. If your screw up Sanitize will take care of any messy code.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at April 14, 2003 at 02:09 AMMy previous post was to Gary, by the way. Yes, Michael, that was another thing I was thinking -- we can't really "stop" the looters, because they aren't going to respond to nice entreaties or fistfuls of chocolate. But you know what would be the story then: "Bloodthirsty American Soldiers Kill for a Bunch of Old Broken Pots!" Then it would be: "Who cares about a bunch of artifacts! Look at the pathetic sight of that dead child clutching a cuneiform tablet! All she wanted was to sell it to feed her family who were Starving Because of the Sanctions™! Absalom Absalom!" And so on...
Posted by: Andrea Harris at April 14, 2003 at 02:13 AMAndrea,
This story implies that the vaults were opended & that there was at least an inside connection
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,84020,00.html
From a comment I left on my own blog [g]
This is a bit from an article on the museum thefts:
The doors of the vaults were opened or smashed, and everything was taken, museum workers said. That lead one museum employee to suspect that others familiar with the museum may have participated in the theft.
"The fact that the vaults were opened suggests that employees of the museum may have been involved," said the employee, who declined to be identified. "To ordinarily people, these are just stones. Only the educated know the value of these pieces."
Posted by: Ith at April 14, 2003 at 11:34 AMHmmm... that didn't work.
Okay, here's the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14331-2003Apr12.html
Treacher got that right in a pithy statement too: STOP THE LOOTING. DON'T SHOOT ANY CIVILIANS. YES, BOTH.
Fabulous.
Posted by: Dean Esmay at April 14, 2003 at 02:39 PMThese priceless artifacts will soon be appearing on the black market for antiquities.
If Laura Croft is too busy, send Indy's granddaughter to Cairo to check with Sallah's granddaughter. [I sense a movie plot here!]
They belong in a museum!
Posted by: Emery at April 14, 2003 at 06:40 PMFor a more upbeat "analysis" of the looting phenomenon, see this post:
"LIKE, MAN, IT'S SO, LIKE ... SURREAL!"(Monday, April 14, 2003).
Folks, Malthusiast means to go to his site and read the post for that date. (It's not readily apparent from you just having your URL show up in the "posted by" area.) You can post a link here, you know. Just use correct html, or I will have to hurt you.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at April 15, 2003 at 12:11 AM