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No surprise  
By Cynthia Annett | April 19, 2003
How can the Bush administration possibly claim to be "surprised" by the looting in Baghdad? ("Baghdad's priceless literary treasures reduced to ash," J-W, April 16) After destroying the communications infrastructure, knocking out power and taking out the police force, how can the administration possibly expect us to believe it hadn't been able to anticipate there would be looting?

Anyone who has been in a major American city during a power failure would have known what was going to happen. There is no reason to believe it would be any different in Baghdad than in Chicago or Los Angeles.

The administration claiming to be "surprised" is absurd. Leaving the National Library in Baghdad unguarded makes no more sense than leaving our National Archives unguarded, which they wouldn't do. In fact, in recent months, they have increased security at our national museums and libraries; they didn't decrease it.

Allowing the destruction of Iraq's National Library is an unforgivable crime and the fault lies with the Bush administration. I cringe to think they could actually be willing to stand by and allow the destruction of the shared culture of all humanity. Doesn't the administration value the world's cultural treasures? Or are they so incompetent they did not anticipate and plan for something that is a normal response of a population subjected to the violent destruction of its infrastructure? In either case, it calls into question whether this administration is fit to govern any country, ours included.

 
Originally published by the Lawrence Journal-World.
 


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Media Analysis
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Culture and Identity
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Human Rights
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US Politics
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Civil Rights
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Anti-War
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Economic Justice
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Environmental Justice
Some people just don't understand the value of the natural world.