John,
I'm going to be writing in more detail on the National Museum, but for now
1) A lot of the treasures presumed lost/looted were actually hidden away
by those who ran the museum, since it was known that this might occur.
2) A lot of the "looting" was actually done by Ba'ath party officials before
the war even began, and there's no way anyone could have stopped it.
3) The marines/army divisions were under fire, and aren't trained to be
"police." They were ordered to protect critical infrastructure, so the oil
facilities *were* guarded. Please recall that this is just about Iraq's
only healthy economy, and there is 90% unemployment in the country. So
if people are going to eat, the oil has to be protected.
4) Iraq is the only country in which this occurs. It's strange: no one
looted the European museums after liberation there. But this same thing
occurred in 1991. It appears almost self-destructive.
5) Since a lot of these treasures went to private collectors, they should
be recoverable--either by us, or by Iraq (which will be a rich country once
it's on its feet again).
6) Priceless antiquities/artifacts were not looted/sold, but actually
destroyed
for all time in World War II. Thank goodness that didn't happen.
I'm sad, but I'm hoping a lot of what appears to be lost was just hidden.
And
that a good deal of it can be bought back once we locate it.
--J
It was also announced this morning that Bechtel won a major contract
in Iraq. Thank goodness! I was beginning to lose sleep over the worry
that they might not get it...
On a more serious note, why didn't anyone care enough to protect the
National Museum? Those ancient treasures were easy pickings for the
looters.
John
--- In OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_yahoogroups.com, "dne44" <dne_at_d...> wrote:
> that we weren't in this for oil or to line the pockets of American
> corporations.
>
> The government awards Halliburton a $600 million dollar contract
> for "emergency" oil services in Iraq. Unbid. And gee, the name
> Halliburton sounds vaguely familiar... And there are a number of
> other such deals being done.
>
> And where does the money come from...that's right, us! So even if
> other companies or countries could have done it cheaper, we'll never
> know how much we could have saved. Thank God this administration is
> so serious about reducing government spending!
>
> And for even more reasons to find this deeply offensive:
> http://slate.msn.com/id/2081640/
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Received on 2003-04-18 13:31:16