Solomonia Archive: Evaporating Antiquities

Wednesday, October 6, 2004

Remember the much publicized looting of the Iraqi National Museum and the supposed pilfering of 170,000 artifacts? That story began to unravel long ago, of course. TigerHawk points out an article in The Atlantic that has much of the rest of the story.

Jack writes:

...There are several things that might be said about Sandler's article, which I recommend that you read in its entirety if you can get your hands on it. First, it is a detailed account of one tiny example of the profound corruption that was inherent in Saddam's awful regime. Second, it is astonishing that Sandler did not publish such an article that so manifestly exonerates the American military more quickly -- she apparently knew the essence of this story for more than a year. One wonders whether the strenuously anti-Bush editors of The Atlantic were reluctant to publish an article that would destroy one of the real tear-jerker anti-war stories of the post-war era.

Third, Sandler's article assembles compelling evidence that the looting of Iraq's antiquities under Saddam only came to an end because of the invasion. Indeed, if Sandler is to be believed, the removal of Saddam by the coalition was the only reason that the systematic looting came to a halt. The obvious conclusion -- though too pro-Bush for The Atlantic to write directly -- is that the collections of Iraq's museums are much larger today than they would have been had Saddam remained in power...

Posted by Solomon at 7:47 PM on Wednesday, Oct 6, 2004 | Comments (4)
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4 Comments

#1 Alex | October 6, 2004 8:32 PM

Uh Oh, we're in trouble now.

They may not have liked us liberating a people, but if we liberated art, well..I mean, how much more 'human' can you be?

I guess the left won't be playing that up.

#2 Alex | October 6, 2004 8:33 PM

Uh Oh, we're in trouble now.

They may not have liked us liberating a people, but if we liberated art, well..I mean, how much more 'human' can you be?

I guess the left won't be playing that up.

#3 Dean Esmay | October 7, 2004 5:55 AM

One day, when the history of this decade is written... never mind. I can't even finish. But it's going to be like looking back and re-evaluating the Cold War, isn't it?

#4 Jack | October 8, 2004 7:04 AM

Thanks for the link. The article, which is only available on-line if you pay for it, is in the November 2004 issue of the Atlantic, which should be going on to newstands about now.