Monday, August 26, 2013

Fascinating Story About Ancient Artifacts

PJMedia has a fascinating article about a collection of books, documents, and artifacts of the Iraqi Jewish community (back when there was still such a community) that were confiscated by Saddam Hussein's government in 1984 -- and which were saved from flooding by the WMD hunters after the invasion.  It's a great story of cultural heritage being saved through the intervention of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others who the left loves to hate.  (The article's author is one of those involved from the the start in saving these unique artifacts.)

It is also a troubling story of to whom these important historical documents will go, now that they have been stabilized and saved.  In a technical sense, yes, they are supposed to go back to the Iraqi government -- but they belonged to the Iraqi government because Hussein stole them from the rightful owners.  There are sound reasons why they should not go back to the Iraqi government, which the article articulates well.

No comments:

Post a Comment