Cultural Illiteracy

Brooke Biggs at Bitter Shack of Resentment hits the nail on the head as to why the White House not caring about the destruction of National Museum in Baghdad was so reprehensible.

What is inexcuseable is the Pentagon's weak explanation that everything happened so fast that they couldn't put a good plan together in time. Let's remember one crucial thing about this war: it was pre-emptive. Which means we controlled the timetable. We could have delayed the war until a decent plan was in place.

We just didn't bother because we just didn't care. And we just didn't care because our leaders spent more time in corporate management classes than in art history or cultural anthropology class. Our leaders are cultural morons.

I think this is exactly the thing that bothered me the most. It's like we're saying "Oh, sorry we destroyed your culture, but here's a McDonald's and a Wal-Mart and lots of other shiny new American corporations to replace it with."

The Iraqis cannot live by bread alone. And while it is very important for us to make sure they have that bread in the coming months and years, it really blows that we've allowed their cultural heritage to be destroyed. The lost antiquities were the type of thing that would have restored a national pride, and that a fallen people could have used as symbols to rally around when rebuilding their government.

But not anymore.