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fictionale. called me late last night to tell me about the museum.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 12 — The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein’s government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 170,000 artifacts carried away by looters.
The full extent of the disaster that befell the museum only came to light today, after three days of frenzied looting that swept much of the capital.
As fires in a dozen government ministries and agencies began to burn out, and as some of the looters tired of pillaging in the 90-degree heat of the Iraqi spring, museum officials reached the hotels where foreign journalists were staying along the eastern bank of the Tigris River. They brought word of what is likely to be reckoned as one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern history.
i wonder what it is about war that makes people destroy these things.
i think about the photographs of the great library in sarajevo...burning, flames spouting from the windows.
and now the museum in Iraq...
all those remnants from Mesopotamia, seat of our history gone, while American soldiers couldn't be bothered to protect it, except for one half-hour, at lunchtime.
Mr. Muhammad, the archaeologist, directed much of his anger at President Bush. “A country’s identity, its value and civilization resides in its history,” he said. “If a country’s civilization is looted, as ours has been here, its history ends. Please tell this to President Bush. Please remind him that he promised to liberate the Iraqi people, but that this is not a liberation, this is a humiliation. If we had stayed under the rule of Saddam Hussein, it would have been much better.”
The looting appeared to have its heaviest impact on a security guard at the museum, Abdul Rahman, 57, who said he had tried to stop the first band of looters breaking through to steel gates at the rear of the compound on Thursday morning. He said he gave up when the looters started firing in the air with pistols and rifles. “They were shouting, `There’s no government, there’s no state, and we will do what we like. We will take anything we want.’ They said `Open up, open up, there’s no more Saddam so we can do what we like.’ “
Mr. Rahman said he returned to his room and remained there for two days, hiding and heartbroken.
what fictions this makes of all the rhetoric employed by the government: we are not saving anything. we are throwing fuel on the fire, and then standing by and watching it burn.
i know when people are dying, it seems silly to mourn the passing of a museum...
and yet what are we, without our history, our memories.
i think what would haroun al rashid think, if he could look at his city now, burning, barbed wire, children bleeding on the street, that city which was once the pinnacle of the world's civilisation...
and i hope that when new york falls, as it seems all great centers of art and learning and cosmopolitan beauty must,
i will not be here to see it.
once they are gone, we can never get them back.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 12 — The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein’s government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 170,000 artifacts carried away by looters.
The full extent of the disaster that befell the museum only came to light today, after three days of frenzied looting that swept much of the capital.
As fires in a dozen government ministries and agencies began to burn out, and as some of the looters tired of pillaging in the 90-degree heat of the Iraqi spring, museum officials reached the hotels where foreign journalists were staying along the eastern bank of the Tigris River. They brought word of what is likely to be reckoned as one of the greatest cultural disasters in recent Middle Eastern history.
i wonder what it is about war that makes people destroy these things.
i think about the photographs of the great library in sarajevo...burning, flames spouting from the windows.
and now the museum in Iraq...
all those remnants from Mesopotamia, seat of our history gone, while American soldiers couldn't be bothered to protect it, except for one half-hour, at lunchtime.
Mr. Muhammad, the archaeologist, directed much of his anger at President Bush. “A country’s identity, its value and civilization resides in its history,” he said. “If a country’s civilization is looted, as ours has been here, its history ends. Please tell this to President Bush. Please remind him that he promised to liberate the Iraqi people, but that this is not a liberation, this is a humiliation. If we had stayed under the rule of Saddam Hussein, it would have been much better.”
The looting appeared to have its heaviest impact on a security guard at the museum, Abdul Rahman, 57, who said he had tried to stop the first band of looters breaking through to steel gates at the rear of the compound on Thursday morning. He said he gave up when the looters started firing in the air with pistols and rifles. “They were shouting, `There’s no government, there’s no state, and we will do what we like. We will take anything we want.’ They said `Open up, open up, there’s no more Saddam so we can do what we like.’ “
Mr. Rahman said he returned to his room and remained there for two days, hiding and heartbroken.
what fictions this makes of all the rhetoric employed by the government: we are not saving anything. we are throwing fuel on the fire, and then standing by and watching it burn.
i know when people are dying, it seems silly to mourn the passing of a museum...
and yet what are we, without our history, our memories.
i think what would haroun al rashid think, if he could look at his city now, burning, barbed wire, children bleeding on the street, that city which was once the pinnacle of the world's civilisation...
and i hope that when new york falls, as it seems all great centers of art and learning and cosmopolitan beauty must,
i will not be here to see it.
once they are gone, we can never get them back.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-14 09:04 am (UTC)I am not proud of our presence in the Middle East and there are MANY things about what has happened that I cry over our involvement in (grammatically incorrect, but you know what I mean) but I CANNOT accept responsibility for THIS.
This is, for me and so far, the greatest tragedy of the war. Maybe if we fed our people (as a nation, as a planet) then those people wouldn't HAVE to loot treasures to sell on the black market for food and shelter for their children.
Maybe some of the artifacts can be reclaimed....