ODE TO THE BAGHDAD MUSEUM

Along the Tigris and Euphrates’ verdant, fertile banks

the world first cities started, and in order to give thanks

their people carved in sandstone, ivory and gold

the gods that brought them harvests of the crops they bought and sold

A harp of gold from Sumer, and Hammurabi’s code

that first spoke of rules to guide our lives from youth until we’re old

The final books of Gilgamesh, that first heroic tale

All these things and so many more were accumulated there

No kingdom lasts forever, no walls are tall enough

To the victor goes the spoils, and the fallen then must trust

that their heritage of expression is not trampled into dust

And so down through the ages of the Persians, Greece and Rome

The Parthians and Sassanids, and Muslims more well known,

objects of majestic culture survived and then were stored –

until the twenty-first century when from the west came war

This conqueror was different; no trace of the past he sought

so he let the treasures of millennia be looted by a mob

Now all the world is poorer for the knowledge that’s been lost

of Ur and the Gardens of Babylon how can one assign a cost

Some day he’ll be remembered but not for what he thought

Rather for all the destruction to our heritage he brought

A harp of gold from Sumer, and Hammurabi’s code

that first spoke of rules to guide our lives from youth till we are old

The final books of Gilgamesh, that first heroic tale

All these things and so many more were accumulated there



by Joe Gallagher

Joe Gallagher is a former columnist for the Los Angeles Downtown News and political writer for the Los Angeles City Watch Newsletter. He can be reached at joegallag2@earthlink.net

It was MUCH better when it was just people disappearing into Saddam's torture chambers -- rather than stuff.

On the other hand, Baghdad is supposedly the site of the Garden of Eden, where the subjugation of women first began!

And we just napalmed it.

Is it not just too good?
We spend SOOOO much effort, and risk so many lives to wage a war with the successful intent of having almost negligable civilian casulties and minimal cultural and infrastructural damage only to have the Iraqis RACE to loot and destroy all these precious treasures. Gotta love 'em.

OF COURSE the people where going to riot and burn every vestige of the old regime... and guess what, the "liberators" encouraged them to do so!

The "liberators" took control of and guarded the Iraqi Oil Ministry... everything else they left open to the looters. Museum Staff BEGGED the U.S. Marines to guard the Iraqi National Museum and the request was refused.

Yes... the poor and uneducated went on a rampage and destroyed everything they couldn't steal. But the Marines just sat and watched it all. As the occupiers... as the only "authority" left in war torn Iraq, the U.S. Marines ALLOWED the Iraqi civilian infrastructure to be sacked and looted.

It's a good poem, and it puts the blame where it needs to be. The looting of the Iraqi National Museum was THE GREATEST CRIME EVERY COMMITTED against Art and our collective heritage... and Bush and his merry band of pirates will be held responsible by history.

That's not true. Fox News didn't say that. So therefore, it's not true. It's the Iraqis' fault, not the US troops, for they are angels and can do no wrong.