April 12, 2003 - Abraham the Patriarch of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, father of Isaac and Ishmael, was born in Ur of the Chaldees in that cradle of civilizations we call modern Iraq. It was here that Hammurabi decreed mankind’s first code of laws. Until this week it was here, in Baghdad that the National Museum of Iraq held the world’s most extensive collection of artifacts recovered in the archeological study of Mesopotamia. The collection was a priceless treasure, priceless in money but even more priceless to the process of learning of our common cultural heritage. That collection is gone today, swallowed by the maw of the marauding mob, looted from the display cases and storage vaults of the museum. It is not just a loss to the people of Iraq of a national treasure. It is a loss to the people of the world of the common treasure of scholarship and knowledge, a crime against each one of us. The looting of the museum strikes a equal blow to both the vanquished people and their conquerors at once. It is ironic that it should be perpetrated in the birthplace of law itself. Most grievously it took place in the presence of the conquering American military that did little to stop the rapine but stood by and watched the history of mankind be carried away.

Raid Abdul Ridhar Muhammad, an Iraqi archeologist described the scene. He saw the museum collection hauled away by the mob. He sent a message to President Bush saying “A country's identity, its value and civilization resides in its history, If a country's civilization is looted, as ours has been here, its history ends. Please tell this to President Bush. Please remind him that he promised to liberate the Iraqi people; but that this is not a liberation, this is a humiliation."

Before the war was launched American archeologists and scholars from around the world called upon the Defense Department to take care to protect the ancient sites and especially the collection of the National Museum. The Secretary promised to take care to avoid damage. By all accounts the promise was kept until Baghdad fell, primarily because the enemy did not use the ancient sites as sites for military assets. Still the importance of that collection of antiquity and its protection was not given protection as celebrations of the liberation of Baghdad gave way to riots of plundering mobs.

I cannot join Mr. Muhammad in holding George W. Bush personally responsible. He was not present to see the riots. But he is the President and, as Harry Truman said, the buck stops on the President’s desk. As he can take credit for the triumphs achieved by his subordinates he must also take responsibility for their omission and failures. This failure destroyed not just the cultural history of the Iraqi people but the common cultural heritage of all of the peoples of the world.