First of all, I will freely admit to knowing zip about Middle-eastern
antiquities. However I do tend to keep myself informed of modern
political events in that area. This thread has displayed a distressing
lack of knowledge about the later. The picture painted, IMHO, has been
a noble Iraqi government struggling to protect its heritage in the face
of an unjust and needless embargo. Let's get real! One poster mentioned
that an Iraqi official responsible for guarding dig-sites couldn't get
parts for vehicles to patrol the areas or chemicals needed for the unit
to do preservation or restoration work. I'd like to ask whether perhaps
those parts, if allowed into Iraq, might not be much more likely to go
into military transport. And as for the chemicals? I don't have a clue
what they might be, but I seem to recall certain unpleasant uses that
the Iraqi government recently made of foreign-supplied chemicals. As
for who is responsible for the supposed looting, are we all naive
enough to think that government wouldn't sell its heritage for some
attractive hard currency that can perpetuate their power?
Some may think this a very Scrooge-like post for this season. I
would counter that there will never be "peace on earth" as long as
people of good will put their blinders on and fail to see that evil
sometimes must be confronted even if some innocent people are
unfortunately hurt by this. If you think that this is off-topic,
maybe the list charter ought to stipulate that only pro-Iraqi posts
may be made.
Dave Carroll - [log in to unmask]