Ruminatrix
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Sunday, Apr 13, 2003
Pottery lessons
Donald Rumsfeld is an embarassment to civilization. The stupidity of the defense secretary's alleged remark -- on seeing video of the looting of the Iraqi National Museum -- that he didn't "know there were that many vases in Iraq" only goes to show that the defense secretary shouldn't run Iraq. Maybe he can take up pottery when he retires. He has no clue.
The archaeological ruins and art of Mesopotamia (covering several millenia) are of much more value to world history than much of what has been produced in this country since the arrival of Columbus. Not preventing the wholesale destruction of the collection (something that could have been done with a platoon or two) is a form of vandalism on the scale of the removal of the Parthenon friezes by Lord Elgin, or the pillaging of Byzantium by the Fourth Crusaders in 1204. Or the Mongols who levelled Abbasid Baghdad in 1258. Two years later they were decisively defeated at Ain Jalut by the Mamelukes, mercenaries from the Black Sea area, and the horde went home. [It is said that in Europe Te Deum masses were given to thank God for granting this victory -- a very unusual event, as Christians rarely found themselves allied with Muslims against a common enemy. The Mamelukes went on to rules Egypt until 1798].
I only hope that when looted items are offered to sale to Americans in Iraq (civilians or military) -- as they inevitably will be -- that some have the decency to return them. The argument of conquerors and "acquirers" such as Lord Elgin, who shipped the Parthenon friezes to London where they are still, has always been that "we can take better care of this stuff than you can." Bullshit, as Mr Rumsfeld has so eloquently demonstrated.