I would like to contrast the complete disregard of the American
military for the cultural treasures in Iraq with the behavior of
the American military towards cultural treasures in Europe during
World War 2. During the liberation of Germany, the American army
was much more concerned with the preservation of famous buildings
and art, to the extent that there were actually special units with
the task of securing works of art, and a lot of planning had gone
into this. For example, in the city of Wuerzburg in Northern
Bavaria, a young American army captain is still fondly remembered
for his role in securing and preserving the invaluable frescos by
Tiepolo in the duchal residence, which had been badly damaged in a
bombing attack and the resulting fire.
By looking at history, we see that it is not impossible to care
about the cultural heritage of a country, even in times of war, if
one puts some thought into it. The events in Iraq show that the
American military leadership either does not care about Iraq's
cultural treasures (out of cultural bias or a lack of education),
or is thoughtless and incompetent. I would view this more as a
failure of planning, than fault the troops in Iraq for not taking
appropriate measures, since despite many warnings their superiors
seem to have not anticipated this at all.
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