Sacking of Iraq's cultural museum

The looting of artifacts in Iraq's museum, some over 7,000 years old, was quite terrible, though not the worst thing that's happened in that country recently. Although I've seen it compared to the burning of the Library of Alexandria, I don't think it quite stacks up. I don't know who stole the artifacts. If it was primarily souvenir-takers then there's a good chance that many if not most of the artifacts will eventually find their way back into museums. (given a generation or two, that is). What worries me is that it may have been done by religious fundamentalists who see the existence of 7,000 year old artifacts as contradicting their beliefs in a 6,000 year old Earth. (No, such fundamentalists are not limited to the United States - in fact, they're precisely the people that we're going to be using as our new puppets to replace Saddam Hussein's more secular regime). If it was, then I fear many of the artifacts may be destroyed in religious fervor, the same way they destroyed the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.

One small hope: I don't know when the artifacts were taken, if they were seen before the invasion or not. But all the stores in the area started moving stock out of the city before we started bombing to keep their merchandise safe. It wouldn't surprise me too much to learn that the museum curators were farsighted enough to do the same.

Time will tell. But not soon.