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Damn, sorry, I vanished from my own post. I've been sick as a dog.
Okay, to cover the main topics people have mentioned, yes, there are a few incidents that require closer inspection. As far as the Palestine Hotel, I honestly believe that someone fired from the hotel. Considering the lengths the coalition forces went to in order to prevent civilian casualties, I find it difficult to believe that they would throw all that to the wolves and shoot some journalists. When it comes to war, that old saying of "any publicity is good publicity" definitely does not apply.
Yes, it is a definite tragedy that cultural places were not protected, and that because of that many artifacts have been destroyed, but let's look at all the elements in the equation before we go throwing around accusations. Numerous witnesses have stated that they saw people going into the museum, directed by "well-dressed men with keys," and looted items. Strangely enough, these items are showing up all over the world in the black market trade. How could an Iraqi civilian break into the museum, steal the items, make it out of the country, and align an international buyer? They can't, plain and simple. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but this seems a bit too fishy. I can say, though, if I were Saddam, or anyone else in power, I would sure as shit sell artifacts worth millions to people just before I disappeared. What better way to make money? Also, it has been noted by numerous sources that the museum had plans for locking everything up in the event of war. The place supposedly had plenty of vaults to protect the important items, and they were even said to have dummy artifacts for display in an event such as that. If it wasn't an inside job, how could the museum staff be so careless? Plus, with contigency plans like that, why should troops be held entirely liable for something that happened which should have been prevented through standard museum protection plans?
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Heh. Oops. Sorry about that one...
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