Interesting People mailing list archives
more on Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 20:55:18 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: "Robert M. McClure" <rmm () unidot com> Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 13:17:39 -0700 To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure At 05:13 PM 4/12/03 -0400, you wrote:
------ Forwarded Message From: Evan Korth <korth () cs nyu edu> Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 17:00:03 -0400 (EDT) To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Subject: Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure Another sad side to the war. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/12/international/worldspecial/12CND-BAGH.html Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 12 The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein's government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 170,000 artifacts carried away by looters.
This does not pass the smell test with me. Just to note a few items: The fighting's approach to Baghdad was not a surprise. It had been coming for some time. Under these circumstances, the curators of the museum were being totally irresponsible not to make some provision for problems of this kind -- such as lock and bar the doors, stash the most valuable artifacts in the basement, arrange for some private security, etc. Second, to move 170,000 items would require moving 2 per second for 48 straight hours. This strains my credulity just a little. Further, do we have any reason not to suspect that some of the curators were not "in" on the job. Also, how do we know that the treasures had not bee moved out of the museum well in advance of the attack on Baghdad. Until these (and a lot more) questions are asked and answered, I will not accept the story at face value. Self appointed cynic-at-large Bob McClure ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on Pillagers Strip Iraqi Museum of Its Treasure Dave Farber (Apr 13)