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Recent
Stories
April
15, 2003
Uzma
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Robert
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April
12 / 13, 2003
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April
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April
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April
3, 2003
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A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
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Can You Hear the Silence?
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Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
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From Baghdad with Tears
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April 16,
2003
Watching
the History of Civilization Burn
Nero in Baghdad
by
MICHAEL SELLS
I am having trouble believing this, partly because
it has been almost completely ignored in the U.S. press (with
the exception below). But that which I do not wish to believe
appears to be true: days after the destruction of Iraq's Museum
of Antiquities, the Nationali Library in Baghdad was burned to
the ground, as U.S. troops against refused to intervene. Many
reporters do not know, do not wish to distract from feel-good
patriotic stories, or assumed the National Library is the same
as the Museum of Antiquities.
We surely live in a time of barbarism.
Let me share a few thoughts on the destruction of Iraqi heritage
that occurred in the past few days. The best
account so far is by John Burns, who was also one of the
first journalists to break through cliches and denials in Bosnia
back in 1992.
Here is a quote from the article:
"But even as some Iraqis sought
to heal the city's wounds, others, fired by anger and revenge,
broke through to the little that was left of untouched government
buildings after four days of continuous looting. Among other
buildings afire or still smoldering in eastern Baghdad today
were the city hall, the Agriculture Ministry and o so thoroughly
burned that heat still radiated 50 paces from its front doors
o the National Library. Not far from the National Museum of Iraq,
which was looted on Thursday and Friday with the loss of almost
all of its store of 170,000 artifacts, the library was considered
another of the repositories of an Iraqi civilization dating back
at least 7,000 years. By tonight, virtually nothing was left
of the library and its tens of thousands of old manuscripts and
books, and of archives like Iraqi newspapers tracing the country's
turbulent history from the era of Ottoman rule through to Mr.
Hussein. Reading rooms and the stacks where the collections were
stored were reduced to smoking vistas of blackened rubble. Across
the street, a lone American tank roared out of the monumental
gates of the Defense Ministry, untouched by the looters presumably
because they knew that the ministry, at least, would be under
close guard by American troops."
Burns focuses on Baghdad. Throughout
Iraq archives, libraries, and records are being destroyed. The
Bush administration is guilty, at the very least, of criminal
neglect of the responsibility, under the Geneva conventions,
for the country it has occupied. Bush, Secretary of Defense
Cheney, and General Tommy Franks have all claimed that they did
not have the ability to intervene. Evidence suggests they knew
what would happen, or should have known, and had the ability
to stop it. The Bush administration made no effort to avoid another
form of "collateral damage," one that they could have
avoided, at least in part, and one they surely knew would happen
unless they took measures to prevent it. Here are some of the
incriminating factors:
1) The looting in Basra the previous
week gave the Bush administration clear warning of what would
happen in Baghdad, if it didn't act. The looting in Basra targeted
the universities and other cultural institutions, as well as
archive and records collection, and gave the Bush clear warning
not only of looting, but of the targeting of key institutions
of culture.
2) According to McGuire Gibson of the
University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, both State and Defense
received a list of the 150 most culturally significant sites
and monuments in Iraq. Heading the list, the Baghdad Museum.
They expressed their intentions to protect them.
3) The Bush administration was quite
capable of protecting what it thought important. Every one of
Iraq's oil wells (over 1000) has been secured, as well as oil
refineries and the Oil Ministry, Defense Ministry, and Interior
Ministry. These graphic illustrations of the values and priorites
of this administration will speak far more eloquently than the
the PR campaigns they launch to win peoples hearts and minds.
One thousand oil wells and not one library or museum.
4) For weeks the administration has
been praising itself for its great organization and logistics.
In fact, by all accounts, an enormous amount of equipment and
personnel have been moved around the world, stationed and restationed.
The U.S. government has a massive and highly effective logistical
operation. There is no reason some effort could not have been
made to protect Iraq's greatest treasure, its cultural heritage.
The administration promised it would try to preserve the oil,
for Iraqis it said. It did preserve the oil, and allowed something
truly irreplaceable to be destroyed.
5) Bush refused to even mention the
looting in his Saturday radio address hailing his triumph, and
has refused to even acknowledge that it exists.
6) Rumsfeld openly ridiculed concern
over the looting. In response to a reporter's question, he said
(I believe this was on Friday), that the whole problem was exaggerated,
that "untidiness" happens, that there was nothing he
could do about it, and that "free people have a right to
commit crimes." Yes, these were his words. Then he stated
that he saw the same vase being looted over and over and over
again. Indeed, the media in the U.S. showed the looting of the
kitsch of Saddam's cronies, making the issue into a justified
humiliation of a kleptocracy. The U.S. television pundits then
began parading Rumsfeld's "vase" remark and belittling
anyone who thought the U.S. administration should take the problem
seriously.
7) General Tommy Franks, even today,
again, claimed that the problem was exaggerated. He was far more
concerned with the fact that the exploits of his army were not
being given due credit than with the growing crisis. It is not
clear if the National Library was on fire yet as he was speaking.
Military spokesmen and officers in the field have continually
expressed contempt for "police work" or, as one called
it, "babysitting," thinking themselves above such activity.
Though some officers were clearly doing their best and though
it would be unfair to blame some stressed out soldier in a war
for this catastrophe, there is a general flaw in the way the
military disdains civil security, as if somehow it was not an
inevitable concomitant of military conflict and, especially,
of occupation.
8) In defending the administration's
lack of action to stop the looting, Rumsfeld cited a litany of
past looting sprees, from Panama to LA. The fact that such looting
has occurred does not mean it was some kind of "act of god"
that could not be dealt with; the precedents make his reponsibility
all the greater because they gave him greater warning.
9) To my knowledge no MP's or specially
designated police and no Iraqi dissidents or exiles were brought
in to help establish basic order. No effort was made to use the
same means to secure the Museum and Library that was used to
secure oil facilities. It is not that the administration attempted
to do anything and failed. It never tried.
10) Even after the National Museum was
destroyed, the Bush administration and the military under General
Franks apparently made no effort to protect the National Library.
In sum:
The U.S. owes Iraq reparations for the
destruction of Iraqi heritage, and those reparations should not
come from Iraqi oil but from U.S. funds. No amount of money can
replace what is lost, but that, tragically, is the situation
with other reparations obligations.
The Bush administration has violated
the Geneva conventions.
For many, Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell, Franks,
Rice, and other members of the Security Council will go down
in Iraqi history along with Saddam and Hulegu as barbarians that
oversaw the destruction of Iraq. But it is Nero that is the best
parallel for this administration. It is not clear whether Nero
set the fire in Rome or not, but what is clear is that, according
to the accounts we have, he didn't think it a problem worth taking
him away from his fiddle.
(As a gesture to let off steam, in sorrow
over the destruction and in anger at the negligence that helped
make it possible, I hereby christen George W. Bush the Nero of
Baghdad).
Michael Sells is
Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest Professor of Comparative
Religions at Haverford College He can be reached at: msells@haverford.edu
Today's
Features
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
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