I have been following this link with great interest -- in fact, it is probably about the most provocative discussion that I have seen on this list in the five years that I have been subscribed.
My only comment on this, where so much has been said so much more articulately than I could, is in response to the post where Gene commented that: "there are many things to be outraged about in Iraq...and what are we expending our moral capital on? Broken pots. Gloriously beautiful and irreplacably valuable pots, but pots all the same. Not human beings. Not miserable, shattered lives. But pots"
It is easy to get caught up in the unrest and misery and despair of contemporary Iraq. Every day countless times and unavoidably we are exposed to photos and stories of death and torture and violence and "miserable, shattered lives." For me, however, the articles about the looting of the museum and the burning of the archives is like a train-wreck, and I can't look away. It is more powerful and distressing in many ways than the stories of torture chambers and lies and propaganda and despotism which demonstrate the world that Iraq is emerging from. Emerging from.
The reason that we are expending our moral energy on the story of broken pots is that the rich, powerful, deep cultural heritage of the Iraqi people and the region represents not only the past - but the hope for the future. It is through their heritage that the Iraqi people can find guidance and the pride of place and people that has been crushed in the torture chambers and with the despotism and lies and propaganda. That cultural heritage and the rich traditions can give hope to the miserable, shattered lives. It is in places such as the Museum of the Antiquities that the Iraqis can step away from the despair and find something to live for and work for. If we want to help the Iraqis to build democracy, we have to protect the cultural institutions that allows democracy to flourish -- and museums are not the least important of these institutions because they provide a place for constructive and detached discourse. I'm thinking, especially of the Museums of Conscience such as the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.
Although it is easy to get caught up in the current events and the whirlwind of past horrors that continue to come to light, and the destruction and despair that comes with war, it is important not to lose sight of why this war happened. It happened to spread democracy and justice and peace and respect for humanity. All of which is represented in the Museum. It was not just broken pots and tablets that were looted. It was the future of an intensely fragile country that desperately needs all the hope and beauty it can get.
Kristen