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Dear God, no.
Apr. 12th, 2003 12:41 pmWow.
Okay, I admit it. I’m impressed.
It takes a certain amount of effort to achieve true historical significance with a war. It takes a certain impact to ensure that your war will be remembered for a thousand years. Congratulations, guys, you did it. The Iraq War will go down in history now and forevermore.
After all, we still talk about the burning of the Library at Alexandria, don’t we? We still find that an almost heartbreaking cultural and historical loss centuries after the fact -- a horror that we could never believe happened?
After numerous appeals for the protection of the United States Army, the Iraqi National Museum was ransacked by rioters and looters. Exhibits ranging back thousands of years, commemorating the very dawn of civilization, providing invaluable links to our history, our culture, and to the very roots of Eastern and Western Civilization alike were stolen or destroyed.
The estimated financial value of the loss is in the billions. Not millions. Billions. But no amount of money can restore the historical and cultural loss.
The bereaved curator who had begged for U.S. Soldiers to help guard the museum said two soldiers would have made the difference. Two soldiers, to protect a museum that contained relics of ancient Babylon, of Sumeria, of Assyria, of the ancient Ur. Antiquities dating back hundreds of years before Egypt’s civilization had risen, much less Johnny Come Latelies like Greece or Rome, have been stolen or destroyed. No doubt those with precious metals embedded in them will be melted down for the base value -- a five hundred thousand dollar gold helmet unearthed from the Ur cemetery will become a thousand dollar lump of gold that a starving Iraqi will sell for fifty dollars.
Why don’t I blame that starving Iraqi? Because he is trying to survive. The world has been shattered, and Freedom has been restored, but in that Freedom’s wake comes chaos and he’s not ready or able to deal with it. I’m deeply hopeful that our troops and presence can give him the order he and so many others need as they make transition away from the dictatorship they have endured. It is the occupying forces that must provide order, and must act out of the greater interest of the Iraqi people and of the world.
They failed. Probably some Colonel decided a bunch of pots didn’t rate being guarded -- not when there were statues to pull down.
Centuries ago, some Colonel decided keeping the hoard from burning irreplaceable documents and relics in the ancient Library of Alexandria wasn’t a good use of his troops’ time. Indeed, it was a powerful symbol, he figured, of the new culture’s destroying of the old, and the new values that came in their wake.
Congratulations, guys. You made the history books. They’ll remember this for the next thousand years.
Okay, I admit it. I’m impressed.
It takes a certain amount of effort to achieve true historical significance with a war. It takes a certain impact to ensure that your war will be remembered for a thousand years. Congratulations, guys, you did it. The Iraq War will go down in history now and forevermore.
After all, we still talk about the burning of the Library at Alexandria, don’t we? We still find that an almost heartbreaking cultural and historical loss centuries after the fact -- a horror that we could never believe happened?
After numerous appeals for the protection of the United States Army, the Iraqi National Museum was ransacked by rioters and looters. Exhibits ranging back thousands of years, commemorating the very dawn of civilization, providing invaluable links to our history, our culture, and to the very roots of Eastern and Western Civilization alike were stolen or destroyed.
The estimated financial value of the loss is in the billions. Not millions. Billions. But no amount of money can restore the historical and cultural loss.
The bereaved curator who had begged for U.S. Soldiers to help guard the museum said two soldiers would have made the difference. Two soldiers, to protect a museum that contained relics of ancient Babylon, of Sumeria, of Assyria, of the ancient Ur. Antiquities dating back hundreds of years before Egypt’s civilization had risen, much less Johnny Come Latelies like Greece or Rome, have been stolen or destroyed. No doubt those with precious metals embedded in them will be melted down for the base value -- a five hundred thousand dollar gold helmet unearthed from the Ur cemetery will become a thousand dollar lump of gold that a starving Iraqi will sell for fifty dollars.
Why don’t I blame that starving Iraqi? Because he is trying to survive. The world has been shattered, and Freedom has been restored, but in that Freedom’s wake comes chaos and he’s not ready or able to deal with it. I’m deeply hopeful that our troops and presence can give him the order he and so many others need as they make transition away from the dictatorship they have endured. It is the occupying forces that must provide order, and must act out of the greater interest of the Iraqi people and of the world.
They failed. Probably some Colonel decided a bunch of pots didn’t rate being guarded -- not when there were statues to pull down.
Centuries ago, some Colonel decided keeping the hoard from burning irreplaceable documents and relics in the ancient Library of Alexandria wasn’t a good use of his troops’ time. Indeed, it was a powerful symbol, he figured, of the new culture’s destroying of the old, and the new values that came in their wake.
Congratulations, guys. You made the history books. They’ll remember this for the next thousand years.
