I've got to sound in here and agree with David (David,
are you sitting down? LOL).

I'd like my fellow Americans to close their eyes for a
moment and think about something before they post one
other word that even comes close to blaming the Iraqi
people.

That thought?  9/11!

Take yourself back to what happened when this country
was wracked by another version of shock and awe.  What
happened?

How many people went out and stored up on all manner
of "hunker down, save yourself" devices?  What kind of
emotional trauma did you feel?  For how many months
after the planes went into the towers were you
watching yourself and those you love having adverse
emotional reactions?  I watched it happen in my area
for months.  Seemingly rational people did incredibly
irrational things.

Now I know there is a call to take the politics out of
this and get to things like disaster recovery.  That
is well and good, but when you plan that recovery,
think real disaster:  people who have heard the sabers
rattling for months.  People who lived in fear with
the possibility it could happen.  People who lived in
mortal fear because it did happen.  People who lived
in fear because it was happening.  People who lived in
fear because they had no food, no water, no
electricity.  People who resort to the most primal of
instincts.

Stealing those artifacts was atrocious.  Destroying
them was no less so.  But even a captured animal will
gnaw off its own foot to save itself, and people who
have been in this kind of tumult are bound to react.
It's save yourself and get those things you may be
able to use so that you can survive.  Yes, we're
hearing art thieves.  Criminals thrive when times are
especially adverse, but don't blame the people who did
what they did to survive.

I live in the LA area.  Our Lakers won, and idiots
"rioted" after the game, torching and burning for the
insane mischief of it all.  My city burned for days
during the Rodney King riots, and I'm old enough to
remember my father, who never owned one in his whole
life, going out and buying a gun when the Watts Riots
transpired in the 60s.  People do things they wouldn't
do otherwise when they are afraid.

So when you plan your disaster recovery measures,
don't just assume earthquake, fire, and flood.
Include human incursions precipitated by fear.
Imagine the devastation could be happening here, at
the hands of others, and everything you thought you
knew was being upheaved.  Imagine the citizens in your
area are ready to snatch, smash, and run, and you're
not so sure about your own safety.

How will you protect the artifacts when you're also
concerned about protecting yourself and your sanity?

If you're going to discuss disaster recovery, make
them real scenarios.

In another life, I was in my building on the very
epicenter of a major quake.  The backup generator had
inadvertently been set on manual, and I had to go down
four flights of stairs in a pitch dark stairwell with
others.  We had to form a human chain because you
literally did not know if there was a step in front of
you.  The only time there was light was when you got
to a new floor where someone was standing in the
doorwell about to come down.

I let a man in front of me on one of the floors.  I
recognized him as an officer of the company, and I
thought it important that he get in there as soon as
possible.  Unlike the rest of the group, this "man of
power" was scared to death and wouldn't let anyone
touch him as a part of this chain.

Fast forward a few years.  They put that man in charge
of disaster recovery, of all things.  So what scenario
does he come up with when the role playing commenced?
A tsunami.  He was still too afraid to be rationale.

It's all well and good to sit in one's armchair and
pass judgment on people you don't know and in places
you've never been under conditions you hope to hell
you never see.

But when hell is manifest on earth, people do things
they may never have considered.

Forgive them their humanity.  If you're a praying
soul, pray that this will be the first thing restored,
along with their dignity.

The artifacts may forever be lost.  But we are more
lost if we fail to understand and empathize with the
motivations of those who live through terror.

Today, it was them.  Tomorrow, it could be you.

Can you really guarantee you would do all that better
if faced with like circumstances?



--- "David E. Haberstich" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Sorry, but I couldn't let this one go by.  This is a
> particularly egregious
> example of blaming the victim, and adding insult to
> injury.  No amount of
> "educating their constituency about the intrinsic
> value of the artifacts to
> the nation" would have hindered a mob hell-bent on
> looting and destruction,
> especially a mob crazed by poverty and privation,
> exploding into an anarchic
> rage against symbols of authority.


=====
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