The Rape of Mesopotamia
Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum
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- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
February 9, 2009
On the list of things that went wrong with the Iraq War, the wholesale destruction of that country's archeological inheritance often goes unmentioned. The average newspaper reader may recall that the Iraq National Museum was badly looted in the aftermath of initial hostilities, but very few realize how entirely predictable the looting was, how negligible the Bush administration's efforts were to prevent it and how far beyond the museum the thefts extended, and still continue. In this “autopsy of a cultural disaster,” Rothfield (Vital Signs
) breaks down the disaster into its discrete parts, using the looting as a perfect metaphor for the failures of planning and execution that have characterized the conflict thus far. Referencing Colin Powell's famous “Pottery Barn rule” (“You break it, you own it”), Rothfield writes, “The barn door knocked in by the Americans remains wide open, and Iraq's cultural heritage is being broken day by day.... he loss is not just to Iraq but to us all.” It may not carry the bombast and thrill of other war accounts, but this book serves as a frightening cautionary tale.
June 15, 2009
Rothfield (director, Cultural Policy Ctr., Univ. of Chicago; "Antiquities Under Siege: Cultural Heritage Protection After the Iraq War") here recounts the tragic and disastrous events that befell the Iraq Museum following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. His sobering account shows not only how fragile a nation's past truly is but that national history is typically at the bottom of the list when collateral damage from military operations is being considered. The museum's demise and the continued downward spiral of Iraq's national heritage following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime strongly indicate that the country's cultural legacy does not figure largely in plans for postwar reconstruction. VERDICT Rothfield's investigations into the demise of the Iraq Museum and how it could have been avoided had allied American and British military and political officials paid attention is a curt yet serious indictment of our post-9/11 age. Appropriate for both general and more scholarly readers, especially those interested in the interrelationships between politics and culture.John E. Dockall, Prewitt & Assoc., Inc. Austin, TX
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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