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Spoils of war
Finger pointing and misinformation
By: David K. Every
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2003-04-20
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 emember the saying, "All is fair in love and war"? I think the important thing is not that it is true; but that some people think that way. It is also important to remember that some people will use that thinking to rationalize any brain-dead or evil behavior. The first weapon of war is misinformation, propaganda and lies.
Now, with that in mind, let's look at the blame game that is going on; the U.S. is responsible because the Iraqi's looted a major museum? Who thought that up, a French politician? Let's get serious here.
First there was a war going on; whenever there is a war, your first responsibility is to end the killing and fighting as quickly as possible to save lives. We shouldn't give up American lives to protect "things"; people are more important than "things". Those that are saying otherwise are just saying that they don't care if more Americans had died; but you didn't see them over there protecting those antiquities do you? So I give their hypocritical attacks that exact value they are due.
More than that, let's look at History. During Wars there has always been looting and pillage. Usually it is done by the victors. America is one of the few countries that have not allowed its soldiers the spoils of war that the Arabs, French, Germans or Russians have. Who is criticizing us again?
On top of us being better than our detractors, by an order of magnitude, there's just the common sense side of this. Because looting has always been a common practice, countries and museums have plans on how to hide things of value. Even this museum had plans on how to store and hide its valuables in 24 hours; and they had over 6 months of warning that we were coming, or at least weeks. If they failed to do their duty, then why are we getting blamed in the world press? Are the Iraqi people that incredibly stupid, or was something else going on?
There are also many interesting facts. The criminals knew where to go, and what to steal. They appear to be either organized, or insiders to the regime and museum, or both. If they were, then they setup the conditions, and then exploited them. Who should get blamed again?
Even the most brain-dead sleuth can figure out who had motive and means and opportunity; and it was the regime that was doing everything else it could to rape the people and treasures of Iraq. In fact, the regime probably stole these antiquities as a way to bribe their way out, or buy their happiness when they settled somewhere else. Are those blaming us as clueless as they are pretending, or just seizing another opportunity to point fingers and attack us?
Now as long as we are talking about the regime, there seems to be evidence that at least some of these treasures were plundered in advance. Now some European art dealers are admitting that they got some of these items months ago. This was a plundering in advance in at least a few cases. This is completely within the normal operating procedure of this regime -- to exploit the treasures and people of the regime, and completely beyond the scope of America to prevent. In fact, France and other Arab nations that were supporting this regime, were thereby supporting such atrocities in proxy.
Occoms razor applies and should be applied to all reason; "The simplest explanation is probably the correct one". So what is more likely, that the U.S. is incompetent by not predicting how stupid the Iraqi's were by not protecting their treasures? That the U.S. intentionally let it happen to embarrass the current regime, because that's a way to gain support in the region or at home? Or that an evil and incompetent regime (Baathist) had either staged this to make us look bad and for personal profit, or they set the stage for it to happen? Given all the reasonable choices, the reasonable answer is obvious. Those that don't see this, are just unreasonable. Those that keep mouthing off, have something other than the truth as their motive.
       
This whole argument about the U.S. is responsible for what happens, reminds me of how stupid and biased some people are. The only people that can write that stuff, or believe it, are irrational American hating cretins that don't understand the basics of logic or reason, nor understand human nature or American culture, nor history or the history of the parties involved. The U.S. is exactly as responsible for that happening as France is for the WWII Rape of Nan king, since they didn't stop that either. In both cases, the countries were not responsible for it happening, and could do little to stop it. It was the wrong place and wrong time. Trying to prevent the unforseen would not only require complete omniscience and omnipotence (and other unrealistic expectations), but would have cost more than it probably would have been worth were it even possible.
People's behavior teaches you things. That they repeat obvious lies as truth says stuff. So do actions. While some people are posturing and pointing fingers, the U.S. is doing more to fix things than all the other finger pointers combined. We've put rewards on finding these things for the Iraqi people and humanity. We've put the FBI on the case. We're already finding things, and returning the treasures. Some have criticized us, and distracted from the true crime and criminals, thus supported the acts or wishes of the perpetrators. The biggest thing their behavior demonstrates is that some hate us, more than they hate a brutal socialist dictator or their own actions (or the consequences of their own actions). These are opportunistic scavengers, seeking any opportunity to attack the U.S., when the problem was not the U.S. but a regime that they supported.
These lies, propaganda and aiding our enemies and the enemies of humanity are the first acts of war, and deserve to be treated as such. They don't deserve to be coddled, but called the fools that they are behaving as. I understand hypocrisy, but I will not tolerate it. I will call a spade a spade. And before you point the finger at others, you'd better be prepared to consider your culpability or collusion in the acts that you're attacking us for. So others can think that all is fair in love and war. But I think the best tool in both is truth. They can spread their lies and misinformation, their bias, bigotries and hatreds; but we will just use logic, reason, common sense, and the truth to expose them for who they are. The truth is if you want to see who has looted the Iraqi country and people more, who should you look at first, the Americans or the French, Arabs and other supporters of a despotic regime?
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