The sheer magnitude of the loss of the cultural artifacts and antiquities during the looting of museums in Iraq is close to incomprehensible.

The fact that more attention was paid to saving oil wells than to saving items comprising a large part of the earliest history of western culture is equally unforgivable.

A rather in-depth review of what has just happened, along with analysis and thoughts for the future, plus a look back at some earlier "liberations" of Iraqi antiques, is available at Francis Deblauwe's web site.