Never forget.

[The Persian Cataphract]

This is still as painful to watch as I first saw it in 2003.

The looting and ransacking of Iraq National Museum in Baghdad

[chenkai11]

[johnhughthom]

It's one thing for people to have taken objects from the museum to sell, but what was the point of destroying anything they couldn't carry? I imagine it would have been a wonderful museum to have visited.

[vartan]

Attacking a whole people's memories. Cruelty at its peak. No way this can be forgotten.

[HunGeneral]

This really was horrible - what could be moved taken, what coudn't be moved smashed (but I just don't understand why) and most of it lost.

Lets not forget.

[Raygereio]

It's one thing for people to have taken objects from the museum to sell, but what was the point of destroying anything they couldn't carry? I imagine it would have been a wonderful museum to have visited.

Why did they start looting in the first place? Your previous government has fallen, the invaders are parading into the city with promises of freedom and the first thing you do is looting your own city? I'll never understand us humans...

Same kind of stupidity as with some football matches (or soccer for you US citizens); after their favority team looses the 'fans' drown their sorrow by rioting and destroying stuff. Or even if their team wins, then they celebrate by rioting.
East of west, stupidity is everywhere.

Attacking a whole people's memories. Cruelty at its peak. No way this can be forgotten.

Oh it will be. I'm not pessimistic, just being realistic.

On a sidenote (and in no way making a political statement whatsoever) Rumsfeld's response of "stuff happens" and "freedom is untidy" was just hilarious. I certainly laughed out loud, what on earth made him think saying that was a good idea...

[Cute Wolf]

well, they probably remember how their ancient Keltoi ancestors loot Babylon in EB ... A standard looting and rioting activity... maybe if Slavery didn't get abolished... we just got a news that Baghdad are Enslaved... or even Exterminated... Luckily they are only looted... (but this was awful too)

It was sad when we see humanity values degraded...

[Silence Hunter]

Such acts like this are not only against the law, common sense and just absurd, but also against your own nation! There is no nation without a history. Same as there is no nation without a language. Destroying your OWN history is the worst crime possible...

I was unsure whether to cry or laugh when I wathed Rumsfeld saying "stuff happens", "they've got freedom and they can do bad things, BUT they can do a lot of beautiful things too!" (not an exact quote, but something similar). That's just absurd.

[Aurgelmir]

Most off the artifacts,temples and historical goldmines(figurly speaking)are destroyed because off there religion.....its really a shame!!
We have to thank the"Zend Avesta"for this.Without zoroastrianism,religion would not the be same,and i think much friendlier(but that is only my opinion,before SOMEONE starts flaming again)

[the man with no name]

Horrible. HorribleHORRIBLE.

[jsadighi]

Most off the artifacts,temples and historical goldmines(figurly speaking)are destroyed because off there religion.....its really a shame!!
We have to thank the"Zend Avesta"for this.Without zoroastrianism,religion would not the be same,and i think much friendlier(but that is only my opinion,before SOMEONE starts flaming again)

Totally agree with this. But then again I'm a Persian zoroastrian so I'm kinda biased!

[Tudhaliya]

To respond to a theme in this thread: why do people destory their own heritage?

"Heritage" has and always will be the product of a small elite ruling class. Think about it: the stuff that most people make and live around each day is rather unremarkable. A straw mat or a clay pot will look pretty much the same anywhere and any time in history. But give that as a reason to the owner of the pot you just smashed, and it will not fly with him.
Possession is nine-tenths of fondness for an object, so most members of a culture do not naturally have an emotional connection to the precious artifacts of their culture. With the exception of the children of the elite who literally grow up around the stuff (which is to say, what we could call "precious" is their "mundane"), a person's "heritage" must be taught.
In other words, precious artifacts mean the most to the elite that created them. They use them and display them as symbols of their authority. They teach the masses that support their empire to identify with these symbols - even to love them.
Now, none of this means that these artifacts aren't significant in a larger "human" context. Objectively, they are some of the finest things we as a species have produced. In some sense, they belong to all of us. But in truth, they only ever belonged to their progenitors, like a limb to its body.
So, when an Iraqi loots the dowry of some dead Babylonian princess, we musn't look at him as a cannibal turning on his own kind. He is more like a scavenger or a bacterium. Horrible, yes, but understandable.

[ziegenpeter]

I couldnt watch this till the end.
Its a pity because historical artifactscan never be reproduced. Same problem with our Historical Archive in Cologne.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histori...rchive_in_2009

[heldelance]

Human life is not worth as much us a record of our achievements. They will outlive us when we are long lost to the sands of time, those achievements and records will make those after us stop and look. They'll bear witness to our greatest glories and most horrific actions. In a nutshell, our legacy will be like the statue of the Defiant Celt. People are awed by the tenacity, the sheer unwillingness of the warrior to give up, they're also horrified by the knowledge that he and his kind once ravaged the lands and caused fear among their enemies.

[Macilrille]

Human life is not worth as much us a record of our achievements. They will outlive us when we are long lost to the sands of time, those achievements and records will make those after us stop and look. They'll bear witness to our greatest glories and most horrific actions. In a nutshell, our legacy will be like the statue of the Defiant Celt. People are awed by the tenacity, the sheer unwillingness of the warrior to give up, they're also horrified by the knowledge that he and his kind once ravaged the lands and caused fear among their enemies.

But would you give up your life for some of those records? Or your child's life?

Yes I am crazy, and putting things in perspective.

[Starforge]

But would you give up your life for some of those records? Or your child's life?

Yes I am crazy, and putting things in perspective.

You can't really look at it that way, however, and be objective. Self interest is a sure thing in questions like that. Self interest is what creates so many of our opportunities and so many of our problems. Self interest placed those folks in that museum.

Unless you're objection are religious or humanistic in nature, human life is, sadly, very cheaply bought when weighed against knowing where we came from.

I would, personally, rank this up with the sacking of Rome and Constantinople - yet modern political polarization, nationalization, recentness, and pictures will generate far more disdain.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Fondness for Antiquity... Much that we dug from the ruins of Athens was dumped by the Athenians themselves when rebuilding their city. The drive towards the preservation of past relics and the recovery of ancient artifacts is something markedly restricted to certain cultures, and by no means universal, as this example would show.