Thursday, June 02, 2005

Some Treasures are Lost Forever

In Baghdad while on a patrol just a few weeks after securing the airport (during my first deployment here) we chanced upon the War College. That was where many of Saddam's officers had been trained. As we pulled up in our Humvee looters scrambled away in fear and we were greeted by three retired Iraqi military officers all of which were livid. ALL of the artwork, statues, marble flooring, carpets, and everything of any value at all had been stolen.

So many years worth of Iraqi heritage and culture gone. We told them (the 3 Iraqis) that we would inform our commanders that this place should have been guarded. As you may have guessed neither us or our commanders could have done anything about what had happened. There just weren't enough soldiers to keep peace, stabilization, and secure the borders from foreign fighters let alone try and guard the important places housing valuable Iraqi artifacts from being stolen and lost possibly forever.

How angry would America be if our history and culture were desecrated and looted, if our capital was ransacked by thieves all because of poor planning about the war? Maybe we are doing the right thing now by trying to rebuild, but to have lost so much...

Can they forgive us for their looted national treasures? What about for all of their dead children? Can we make things right? How can you compensate a human life? How can you compensate thousands of them?

Don't ask me, I don't have those answers...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

RIGHT ON ZACK!!!! its linda, hope you're having a good day.

Anonymous said...

Since I haven't been to Iraq, who were the looters of the National Treasures? Were they Iraqi or were they non Iraqi? There isn't any way to compensate for the loss of life. All we can do is to stop the people that are taking it by unlawfull means by what ever means possible, be they terrorists or dictators.

Anonymous said...

Zach
The only thing I can say is that it is unlikely people looted these treasures just to destroy them--likely it is the work of poor individuals who are looking to perhaps make money off of them--or maybe even by some looking to save them from damage. In any event, some of these treaures are probably going to be lost, perhaps forever, but I would venture a guess that as the country stabalizes over the next 50 years or so, most of these will surface somewhere, and if they aren't in the hands of Iraqi authorities, they'll be somewhere out there, on some shelf or display case.

I have a question for you. Do you think that, if we indeed are able to within the next 10 years or so make Iraq a safe, livable place similar to the US as far as freedoms are concerned, do you think that the Iraqi citizens would find it worth it? Do they seem to want freedom enough to sacrifice these treasures? Or are their lives (and were they) not as bad as our government would make them out to be?

And not to sound crass, but the loss of lives in this world seems to be forgotten relatively quickly (unfortunately). I would be willing to bet that the monetary losses of the country will be viewed as a bigger problem then the loss of life, though individual people may not see it as such. That seems to be the nature of society in general.

Scott

Anonymous said...

Hey
I've enjoyed reading your blog. You write so well and share your thought and feelings in such a compelling way. Keep it up.
Brandy

Rufus said...

You don't have the answers, but you're much wiser than I am for asking the questions. Best wishes.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I really enjoyed reading about your experiences but I wonder.....I have been told by others that soldiers aren't allowed to talk about their experiences while still in the military and you can be court marshalled. Is that not true?
Hopefully not. I find your writing interesting, heartbreaking, and thoughtful.