by www.NFTF.org
Monday, Apr. 14, 2003 at 5:19 PM
Because the U.S. only secured Iraq's oil fields and not Iraq's archaeological treasures and universities, further speculation has mounted throughout the world that the U.S. is only interested in Iraq's natural resources.
Report by YellowTimes.org
NewsFromtheFront.org
TORONTO (NFTF.org) -- While U.S. forces were securing the oil ministry in Baghdad, looters freed 50,000 pieces of gold, silver, and bronze antiquities dating back 7,000 years. According to the New York Times on April 12, "They included ancient stone carvings of bulls and kings and princesses; copper shoes and cuneiform tablets; tapestry fragments and ivory figurines of goddesses and women and Nubian porters; friezes of soldiers and ancient seals and tablets on geometry; and ceramic jars and urns and bowls, all dating back at least 2,000 years, some more than 5,000 years ... 28 galleries of the museum and vaults with huge steel doors guarding storage chambers that descend floor after floor into darkness had been completely ransacked."
The National Museum of Iraq has been effectively destroyed, erasing Iraq's claim to history, culture and archaeology.
Iraq's pantheon of higher learning, Baghdad University, partially destroyed by fighting between U.S. forces and Saddam's Fedayeen, has been stripped of everything; books that were not taken were burned; tables, computers, chairs, archived research, years of scholarly work, all gone, all erased.
Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad has also been virtually destroyed. Mosul University, the pride of Iraq's north, was stripped, plundered, looted, and burned. The dean of the university ran to Kurdish officials and U.S. Special Forces begging them to help.
"Why the university, why," he screamed at an Al Jazeera cameraman. "Are you liberating it from Saddam too?"
Iraqi professors working at Mosul University told Al Jazeera that the destruction of all institutions of higher learning will effectively pull Iraq back into the Middle Ages.
Because the U.S. only secured Iraq's oil fields and ministries but not Iraq's archaeological treasures and universities, further speculation has mounted throughout the world that the U.S. is only interested in Iraq's natural resources.
YellowTimes.org correspondent Firas Al-Atraqchi drafted this report.
www.NewsFromTheFront.org