Shock & Awe Indeed

APRIL 2003 - “For almost a thousand years, Baghdad was the cultural capital of the Arab world, the most literate population in the Middle East. Genghis Khan’s grandson burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was said, the Tigris River ran black with the ink of books. Yesterday, the black ashes of thousands of ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad.” So wrote, Robert Fisk a week back. The royal archives of Iraq turned into soot in the 3,000 degrees of heat that followed the looters and the arsonists. The Museum had already been vandalized.

In all, an estimated 170,000 artifacts that reflect the culture of Iraq from the founding of ancient Sumer in 3500 BC to the end of the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 AD are gone forever and with that, a part of our past has vaporized into nothingness. The loss may primarily be Iraq’s and human life, some will argue, is more valuable than artifacts, but in the final reckoning, the items in the Museum represented the collective consciousness of many nations from the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrains, Iranians and Iraqis spanning centuries of human creativity and beauty. In the words of Massoume Price, “they represented the spirit of our nations, the brilliance of our ancestors who built and made us what we are. Even nations cannot last for long without a spirit.” What was taken from Iraq in this sad month of April has been taken from us all and we are the poorer with this loss- just as we were when the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan statues of the gentle face of Buddha.

Mesopotamia, often called the cradle of civilization, and literally meaning ‘between two rivers’ was the earliest center of urban civilization and the modern-day Museum contained some of the most wonderful specimens that bore eloquent testimony to that singular title. Among them, the first tablets, almost 80,000 of them, with the earliest written records created by mankind, the magnificent bronze head of Sargon equal, it is said, to any work done by Michael Angelo and 3500 years before his time, the first human writings of 3000 BC, the oldest versions of the earliest literary works, Gilgamesh and the Biblical Flood, the oldest recorded poetry composed by Enheduanna, the high priestess of the temple of Ur, the 4000 year old harp from the city of Ur and hundreds of other stunning works, are gone forever, beyond any hope. Following the sacking of the Museum, the Library that housed some of the oldest Koranic verses, was torched, deliberately and professionally and nothing remains of it. The looters who systematically plundered the Museum, used professional tools that cut through the thick glass effortlessly without damaging the valuable objects. They knew exactly what they wanted and they robbed with chilling precision, the same precision that the B-52s and other weapons of mass destruction displayed so wonderfully over Iraq. The only things that weren’t taken away were marble statues and other large pieces which were obviously too heavy to drag off. Whatever else that could not be carted off, was smashed. The Americans, furiously chewing bubble gum and blowing balloons, sat idly and watched. A frantic Robert Fisk who raced to the US Marines and yelled at them that the library was on fire received a drawl from the man who said, ‘this guy says some biblical (sic) library is on fire.’ The library was just 5 minutes away, but no one moved. Within minutes, their flames were leaping 200 feet high and centuries turned into ash that floated down into the streets. Two soldiers with guns would have been enough to prevent this tragedy.

But who were the looters and the arsonists? No one seems to know. It is not a coincidence that some 400 items are on sale in France already, within a few days of their disappearance and 42 artifacts were detected at the Jordanian border. Artworks have been spotted at Dulles and Logan airports and surely, even now, hundreds are making furtive journeys to new masters. There is evidence to support that long before the first bombs fell on Iraq, the US State and Defense Departments received a list of 150 of the most culturally significant sites in Iraq. Heading that list was the Museum in Baghdad. Bush, Cheney and General Tommy Franks have claimed they did not have the ability to intervene yet they were all too aware of what was round the corner. Sparing two marines and a tank was not a logistical nightmare. The truth is, they never tried to do anything. They simply didn’t want to. A week before Baghdad, Basra was looted. The targets were universities, cultural institutions, archives and records collections. Every single oil well in Iraq and they numbered over 1000, were secured and made safe. So were the oil refineries, the Oil, Defense & Interior ministries. But on museums and libraries, it was open season. Mr. Rumsfeld took the cake (he had it all the time anyway) when he said that looting was inevitable and unpreventable as ‘free people have a right to commit crimes.’ His ally in arms, General Franks was heartbroken that the valour and glorious deeds of his men were not receiving enough praise in spite of the shameless ‘embedded’ journalists and instead the looting was receiving attention and was greatly exaggerated in any case. The truth is, no one was remotely interested in saving the museums or the libraries. They were more or less collateral damage, a phrase for which we shall remain indebted to the US.

There is a sense of outrage over what’s happened in Iraq, the deaths of thousands and the destruction of its treasures. Many people believe that the US must be made to pay for the destruction of Iraq’s heritage – from US funds, not Iraq’s oil money. Many believe that Bush has violated the Geneva Convention by refusing to protect the heritage of a nation it has conquered by military brute force. Some believe what’s happened in Iraq is nothing short of a criminal act, that a thousand oil wells were ‘saved’ but a museum allowed to be vandalized and destroyed in broad daylight. There was a time, it is said, when the Arabs claimed that their books were written in Cairo, printed in Beirut and read in Baghdad. The treasures that are now confined to oblivion were not the property of Saddam Hussain but the distinction seems to have been lost on the commanders who were in charge. What barbaric times we live in, where we save Pandas and burn libraries, where the global tidal wave of information technology has only raised the walls of intolerance, bigotry, hate and strife higher than they have ever been in our troubled history. But then is it asking for the moon to expect the Americans to have a sensitivity for cultures other than those that don’t feature large burgers in the middle? When you are just two centuries old, all things older than that must look archaic and old fashioned and a few pots and jars don’t cut much ice with those who see other cultures more with passing curiosity than any real emotion.

And a word of thanks to this fictious report that reads: Washington, March 24 (Reuters). A tragic fire on Monday destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. Both his books have been lost. Presidential spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that the President was devastated as he had not finished colouring the second one.