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Iraq
Who to REALLY blame for Iraqi Looting?
2003-04-22
An Iraqi Tragedy by Daniel Pipes
ed for length, but fine analysis to counteract the anti-US element of reportage on this issue
Who's to blame for the destruction of Iraqi museums, libraries and archives, amounting to what The New York Times calls "one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern history"? The Bush administration, say academic specialists on the Middle East. They proceed to compare American leaders to some of the worst mass-murderers in history.
  • Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University: U.S. political leaders are "destroyers of civilization" like Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane.
  • Michael Sells of Haverford College: They are "barbarians" whose "criminal neglect" makes them comparable to Nero.
  • Said Arjomand of the State University of New York (Stony Brook): The U.S. government's "war crime" renders it akin to the Mongols who sacked Baghdad in 1258.
These academics overlook one tiny detail, however: It was Iraqis who looted and burned, and they did so against the coalition's wishes. Blaming Americans for Iraqi crimes is deeply patronizing, equating Iraqis with children not responsible for their actions.
but who ever held the loony moon-bat left accountable when THEY are being racist?
The academics also overlook another fact: the extreme rarity of such cultural self-destruction. The French did not sack the Louvre in 1944. The Japanese did not burn their national library a year later. Panamanians did not destroy their archives in 1990. Kuwaitis did not destroy their historic Korans in 1991. Yes, looting took place in all these cases, but nothing approached what The Associated Press calls Iraq's "unchecked frenzy of cultural theft."

And a frenzy it was.

(SNIP)

Long live Daniel Pipes, long may he write op ed in the NY Post!
Posted by:Anon

#1  The museum was looted after GW-I. The Iraqis in charge of the museum knew it was coming, "as sure as the sun will rise, we will be looted again." Please, U.S. Army, protect us, while we shoot at you of course. They were SHOCKED, SHOCKED to see looting. After they had made off with all the good stuff. All bullshit 'news' gobbled up by useless 'journalists' to say Bush Bad, War Bad.
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-04-22 11:05:05  

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