From: William T. Yates (billyates@billyates.com)
Date: Sat Apr 19 2003 - 16:37:26 EDT
Also please note that it appears to have been an organized heist by
knowledgeable people. They had keys to the vaults and display cases. The
items taken were not indiscriminate choices. While some 'looting' did
occur, the real loss seems to have been the result of a planned criminal
heist.
As for priorities in protecting places, the first priority is force
protection. If you can't protect yourself, you can't protect anything
else. This is war. Baghdad is still not totally safe and certainly was
not so when the theft occurred. At the time, the number of coalition
forces was limited, and still is. Until more details are known, I would
be leery of accusing the US of dereliction of duty (some almost go so
far as to accuse the US of complicity). I think those who have resigned
may have done so on the basis of incomplete and inaccurate informaton.
One of my superiors once had a slogan, "No immediate action, ever." A
cautionary warning not to react without thinking and knowledge. That can
apply to more than war news.
A late report says that paintings apparently stolen from the museum were
recovered at the Jordanian border today. All may not be lost.
Blesisngs,
--Bill Yates
Keith Miller wrote:
> Another article on the fallout of the looting of Iraq's museums.
>
> Keith
>
>
>
>> Bush Panel Members Quit Over Looting
>> Cultural Advisers Say U.S. Military Could Have Prevented Museum Losses
>>
>> Citing the "wanton and preventable destruction" of Iraq's National
>> Museum of
>> Antiquities, the chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on
>> Cultural
>> Property has submitted his resignation to President Bush.
>>
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42416-2003Apr16.html
>
>
>
>
> Keith B. Miller
> Research Assistant Professor
> Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
> Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
> 785-532-2250
> http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
>
>
-- --Bill Yates --mailto:billyates@billyates.com --http://www.billyates.com --CD Reviewer, Webmaster, Roots66.com --Editor, WorldVillage.com's Believer's Weekly --Theron Services: Web Design, Editing, Writing
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