and sweet you roll
My political coming of age can be traced through the Bush administration. When Bush took the presidency, I was ambivalent; a person who my parents supported couldn't possibly be all bad, I thought. Maybe he is a charming guy.
I remember thinking of Donald Rumsfeld as "Uncle Rummy," and I remember when I indefinitely stopped thinking of him that way: April 12, 2003. That was the day that the looting of Iraq's National Museum made news. That was the day that he dismissed it impatiently, saying "stuff happens." That's a real quote, by the way.
That's what I'd like to reflect on with today's news in mind. We invaded a cradle-of-civilization country the size of California with three soldiers, a tank, and millions (billions?) of dollars' worth of neat-o technology, and when 170,000 objects are destroyed or stolen from the National Museum, it's because "stuff happens."
While I believe that the value of human life (American and Iraqi) didn't weigh heavily enough into the calculations for war, it seems like such glib dismissal of heirlooms of the human species exists on a different level. (Not higher, even -- just different.) How hard would it really have been to have soldiers protecting this museum? Vases, sculptures, artworks and artefacts of all different kinds survive hidden away for thousands of years, are eventually placed in a museum for protection and appreciation, and then are smashed and hauled away by a mob because Donald Rumsfeld wanted to try out some light warfare.
Am I crazy to argue that this qualifies as a crime against humanity? It's a crime against everyone in the world. Every single person in the world deserves to be able to go and look upon objects made by early members of our species. It's fucking tragic that we can't do that anymore. It was a completely senseless oversight. It's almost beyond comprehension.
Looking at the picture of him hanging his head, I feel a bit bad for him. He looks sad to be leaving his job. And yet, of course, I also think he should've been forced out right around the same time that he was explaining why the looting was no biggie. I wonder if privately, he understood the gravity of what he and his cronies had done -- maybe he cried himself to sleep that night and prayed to God for forgiveness. If not, I would like to see him properly punished. I would like to see him sat down and made somehow to understand exactly what he's done to the world.
Barring that, I'd accept permanent imprisonment.
I remember thinking of Donald Rumsfeld as "Uncle Rummy," and I remember when I indefinitely stopped thinking of him that way: April 12, 2003. That was the day that the looting of Iraq's National Museum made news. That was the day that he dismissed it impatiently, saying "stuff happens." That's a real quote, by the way.
That's what I'd like to reflect on with today's news in mind. We invaded a cradle-of-civilization country the size of California with three soldiers, a tank, and millions (billions?) of dollars' worth of neat-o technology, and when 170,000 objects are destroyed or stolen from the National Museum, it's because "stuff happens."
While I believe that the value of human life (American and Iraqi) didn't weigh heavily enough into the calculations for war, it seems like such glib dismissal of heirlooms of the human species exists on a different level. (Not higher, even -- just different.) How hard would it really have been to have soldiers protecting this museum? Vases, sculptures, artworks and artefacts of all different kinds survive hidden away for thousands of years, are eventually placed in a museum for protection and appreciation, and then are smashed and hauled away by a mob because Donald Rumsfeld wanted to try out some light warfare.
Am I crazy to argue that this qualifies as a crime against humanity? It's a crime against everyone in the world. Every single person in the world deserves to be able to go and look upon objects made by early members of our species. It's fucking tragic that we can't do that anymore. It was a completely senseless oversight. It's almost beyond comprehension.
Looking at the picture of him hanging his head, I feel a bit bad for him. He looks sad to be leaving his job. And yet, of course, I also think he should've been forced out right around the same time that he was explaining why the looting was no biggie. I wonder if privately, he understood the gravity of what he and his cronies had done -- maybe he cried himself to sleep that night and prayed to God for forgiveness. If not, I would like to see him properly punished. I would like to see him sat down and made somehow to understand exactly what he's done to the world.
Barring that, I'd accept permanent imprisonment.
<< Home