You have to remember that they these people may not be informed about which artifact is X years old or is sacred. They just don't know the real value of what they're taking. They have been living under sanctions for years, possibly with little water or food.

It's the age old question, what would you do to survive and feed your family in extenuating circumstances? Is there a right or wrong answer?

I'd like to meet the fence in Iraq that could liquify ancient books and artifacts. True, you might be able to sell/barter an office chair for a few dinars, but who's going to trade food/water for some priceless/worthless book that can most definitely be traced back to these looting sprees?

The good side of it all is that the stolen artifacts and books actually have a chance of surviving instead of being burned in the buildings that contained them. Eventually, the collection has a chance of being reassembled.

As for the question about which artifact is sacred, they only have to look at the front of the building they are about to raid. Everything in a museum is sacred or priceless as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not doubting people are hungry ... they just have a strange and illogical way of showing it.

would we be any better?

i'm sure if i read more about the dynamics of crowd personalities my argument would be stronger... but i just feel like in the lack of rules and government it only takes a few to revolt / riot ... which leads others to think - 'hey, if he's doing it - then i guess it's okay if i do it' ... and then you get those trying to stop the looting ... and they then have to become violent to fend off the looters...

i think we all have to work very hard to remain civilized - and we can't just blame to covers of a dictatorship as the reason for the problems...

for all we know - we're living in a dictatorship... masked by a false sense of equal play and justice

Aaaah...the good old mob mentality.

hey Ryan just checking in (and procrastinating).

What many Iraqis and American soldiers don't realize is that this is stuff from the very 'cradle of civilization' - where all humanity could have originated from. Many of these talets have not even been translated yet because we cannot decipher the language.

So little is known about Sumerian and Akkadian cultures, that if these artefacts are lost, we'll probably lose everything about the civilization.

yo, if anyone should be watching people hocking stuff for money it's those bloody Americans. They will loot that place clean and sell all the artefacts on ebay (true story). i blame them for this happening - it's just like the curator of the National Museum of Iraq said, if they had put American soldiers outside then it would have been fine... same thing in Afghanistan.

It's so brutal, i just want to cry.