I remember the horror when we entered the plundered Baghdad Museum two days after the Americans took the Iraqi capital in April 2003. We picked our way through broken shards of pottery and destroyed statues – the looters had smashed as well as grabbed. A lone archaeologist was wandering around in shock. “We would have been better off keeping Saddam Hussein,” he said. “At least people were scared of him.”

We told the American forces at the Palestine Hotel that no one was guarding the museum. Nothing they could do, they said. They were Army. That part of town was Marines. Not their problem. read more

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