This must represent a severe change in our war plan, didn't we deploy our "elite" Antiquities and Cultural Icon Demolition teams to this Theatre.

No ancient artifact is more valuable than a single person's life. Yes, we should be careful, but should we even bother mentioning this?

"No ancient artifact is more valuable than a single person's life. Yes, we should be careful, but should we even bother mentioning this?"

Wow, you know your history. That esplains why we avoided bombing Kyoto, the cultural center of Japan.

Genghis, not just a change in our war plan, but the whole plan itself is shot to hell. Now the coalition is has to "write a new plan" (as Peter Arnett would say). Because our military worked for a year on a war plan that said: "Go to point A, then B, then C, then D." The slightest change means we have to start from scratch.

Quinn,

While Secretary of War Stimson was able to get Kyoto off the bombing list, that act, in and of itself, did not clearly cost us any lives.

Had the Japanese, however, based kamikaze units, frex, there, one wonders how long Kyoto would've remained sacrosanct.

For that matter, imagine if we'd launched Coronet---the invasion of Honshu. Do you think the Japanese would've abandoned Kyoto? Do you think we would have avoided it, under those circumstances?

Jeff, My bad, we do need a whole new plan, how long before we can totally withdraw our troops and start over again.
What administration offical get to yell "Do Over!".?

Dean,

My dad was a 17 year old GI in the phillipines along with about a million or more other men waiting the invasion of Japan.

I for one am glad we dropped the atom bomb.

My point was simply that the US,a dn others, have always had a policy of staying away from cultural areas during war.

I like to think this is an ideal, but given that we had to stay in Japan for example (my dad was there for 24 months), it also had a very practical point in that we were going to be the ones to try and bring the society back.

I think a lot of the give and take here on a number of subjects fails to understand that Iraq is now our responsibilty. My dad was quite proud of his time in Japan, and had andm has many japanese friends, despite his uncle having been killed by the japanese.

These cultural artifacts are not the property of Saddam, they are a partr of something much deeper.

Indeed if you know the history of mesopotamia, you know that many of these cultural sites are abvout the very history of human civilization itself.

As far as Kyoto per se, i just used it as an example. I could list many sites in Italy and elsewhere that were off limits despite related US losses.

In the event that Coalition soldiers are killed or injured by Iraqi fire from such sites, the people who requested and approved this insane policy should be required to communicate, IN PERSON, the reasons for the loss of those soldiers to their loved ones. This policy helps the Hussein regime to kill our soldiers, period.

It will also make the protection of these sites more difficult in the future. If these preservationists want to preserve these sites, they should make it clear they support the opposite policy: that a single human life is worth more than all of these sites combined. Then, and only then, will the bad guys have the incentive to save them.

The same principle applies to civilian casualties - in the long run they are made much worse by refusing to kill 'soldiers' hiding behind them.

More of the usual anti-war, anti-military spin. This article makes it sound like the cowboys were going to gleefully destroy Iraq's cultural heritage until those oh-so-wise archaeologists and scholars straightened them out.

Bomb Bahgdad with Archaeologists, certain Columbia Professors, the administration at Highland High School, the human shields, and a few Hollywoods. Take the C-130 over town, drop the tailgate,and "Exit, exit, exit!"

"In the event that Coalition soldiers are killed or injured by Iraqi fire from such sites, the people who requested and approved this insane policy should be required to communicate, IN PERSON, the reasons for the loss of those soldiers to their loved ones. This policy helps the Hussein regime to kill our soldiers, period."

This has been the policy of the US military in all wars in this century. don't be upset at your own lack of knowledge oif US military history.

to RN:

I particularly meant the archeologists should communicate in person...

thanks for helping clarify...