Attending to the Details

I've been slow getting to Frank Rich today, and it's somewhat fitting, because his column this week, "Stuff Happens Again in Baghdad," is also slow getting started. In the first few paragraphs, he's setting up his context by rehashing the debacle of the looting that was allowed in Baghdad's Iraq Museum. There's no excuse for the Americans turning a blind eye to the activity, especially in view of the Prez's statement to Iraqis that they were "the heirs of a great civilization that contributes to all humanity." Rich quotes a former Reagan Pentagon official who said, "America lost most of its prestige and respect in that episode." Unfortunately, that sounds very believable. But all this background is put to good use in describing the current status of the Iraq Museum.

It's symbolic of the anarchy throughout Iraq's capital that the museum's entrances are now sealed with concrete to keep out new hordes of killers and thieves. But the violence, which seems to spiral with each declaration of a new security crackdown, is old news. More revealing is the other half of the museum's current plight: it is now in the hands of Iraq's version of the Taliban. That sad denouement is another symbol, standing for our defeat in the larger war of ideas.

The museum changed hands in August, when Donny George, its longtime administrator and the chairman of Iraq's official antiquities board, fled the country fearing for his life and for the treasures in his care, both at the museum and the country's many archaeological sites. Mr. George is a Christian and had good reason to fear. The new government minister placed in charge of the museum, a dentist, is an acolyte of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, whose goal is to make Iraq a fundamentalist theocracy. To Mr. Sadr and his followers, the museum's legendary pre-Islam antiquities, harking back to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, are infidels' idols to be sacked.

You couldn't ask for a better metaphor for our entire Iraqi policy. Radical Muslims are consolidating power, but we've got bigger fish to fry. Like in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and, presumably, al-Queda are making a comeback, we've got more important matters that need our attention. Iran's looking awfully frisky, lately.

(And once again, thanks to donkey o.d. for making Rich available in full.)