Don't you guys EVER get tired of being wrong? New York Times, April 24: At least 170,000 artifacts were carried away in the two-day frenzy of looting at the museum, home to one of the world's most extensive collections of Mesopotamian antiquities. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10F10FA345E0C778EDDAD0894DB404482 New York Times, May 1: Col. Matthew F. Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating the looting and is stationed at the museum, said museum officials had given him a list of 29 artifacts that were definitely missing. But since then, 4 items — ivory objects from the eighth century B.C. — had been traced. "Twenty-five pieces is not the same as 170,000," said Colonel Bogdanos, who in civilian life is an assistant Manhattan district attorney. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/01/international/worldspecial/01MUSE.html For all of the howling about the disgraceful, disgusting outrageous and shocking disregard for the world's cultural legacy around here, doesn't it make you feel JUST a little silly to know that you were making all that caterwauling over 29 FREAKING PIECES? No, sadly, probably not.
I'd be thrilled if the initial reports turn out to be not true. You obviously didn't give a fuck either way, which says a lot of you as a human being.
Speaking of people who never tire of being wrong, how far are we into the process of sorting through that mountain of WMDs we've found in Iraq? You know, the ones Bush had irrefutable evidence about and were such an immediate threat that we had to go to war instantly and the press keeps announcing periodically that we've found for sure this time? Oh, and how goes the publishing of all the documents we've found showing that Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks? I can't wait to read them.
PS - Ben is spot on. That the initial estimates of our collective loss have proven to be way, waayyyy out is great news.
Re: Re: Museum Looting Ben, I think everyone agrees it is unfortunate, but most people are able to put the event in perspective when incorporating the other aspects of the war in Iraq.. minimizing civilian casualties, supplying food and water, eliminating the threat of attacks on our troops, tracking down Saddams forces, etc.. And unfortunatly, this event did occur, but it isnt worth harping over, especially since many pieces are being returned. You continuously droning on about it, if anything makes you look like a hand-wringing pansy.. get over it.. lets move on..
Bill, tell me you're not really this dense. The new article simply suggests that 170k seems to have been an overestimate. It doesn't even come close to arguing that only 29 things were actually ripped off! Noone has been proven "wrong" here at all. The article merely says we don't know yet. Sheesh. "The difficulty in determining what is missing is compounded by the lack of a master list of the museum's collection. Although inventories survive, they were compiled department by department and not computerized. And in some cases, they are not complete."
Re: Re: Re: Museum Looting And mostly protecting oil assets. No, I don't want to get over it. That's the whole point! I haven't seen anything to suggest that we've learned our lesson. It's not like I started this thread.
Here is some more info that Bill left out due to selective reading... The Iraqi cultural officials cannot help looking back to April 8 and 9, when their appeals for American military protection of the museum went unheeded. In conversation after conversation, the subject resurfaces, invariably with a bitter reminder that American forces were already protecting the nearby Ministry of Oil. "I asked some soldiers why they did not stop the looting," Mr. Naqsa Bandy recalled. "They said, `This is not our duty.' " Mr. Khalil said his experience was similar. "The U.S. forces and tanks were near the museum," he said. "They could have done as they did at the Ministry of Oil. Why didn't they? I don't know. We asked them. They said they were in the middle of a war." No real explanation for that.
So, if X < 175,000, then X = 29? Every time Bill yells "DON'T YOU GUYS EVER GET TIRED OF BEING WRONG?" is actually a comedic signpost warning of poor comprehension and flawed logic.