War plundering

“The time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the deepest insult you can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating plunder in the interest of the privileged classes of the particular State system into which we have happened to be born.”-

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

1991 Persian Gulf War, thousands of antiquities from Iraq, many stolen from museums, have found their way onto the world market. How dose something like that happen anyway? Well from the beginning of time, the victors of war have got to do what ever they wanted with the losers stuff. Looting, pillaging, and burning the beautiful creations from the ancient world. Looters have ransacked the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad, taking art and artifacts dating back thousands of years. Deputy Director Nabhal Amin told the Reuters news agency that some 170,000 items have disappeared or been destroyed. She said the collection was worth billions of dollars. Amin said she holds U.S. troops responsible for failing to protect the museum's contents from thieves and vandals. So is America responsible for the missing art? Part of the blame for the looting goes to the regime of Saddam Hussein,"when the government fell, Iraqis expressed their rage against Saddam by taking vengeance on the museum."- Says Susannah Rutherglen author of The American Scholar.Ms. Rutherglen says the American forces have been equally negligent at archaeological sites across Iraq, which continue to suffer from "ruinous plundering." I beleve that its horible that people in this day and age could plunder, but the reality is that it happens and nothing but stoping war all together and getting rid of the need for material welth will make it stop.

Sources New york times; History Channel News