I think Ms. Thomas summed up in parody what a lot of people are feeling right now: our leaders have provided us with woefully inadequate, sometimes insulting ("Stuff happens") responses to a tragedy of incalculable magnitude. No matter how you feel about this president, the silence from the White House is deafening. If our "planners" had not been specifically warned by non-partisan Iraqi, European, and American experts BEFORE the fact that this might happen (because looting of museums took place after the 1991 conflict), they might be forgiven for trying to excuse their lack of planning and vigilance. " . . . it's too late now," but it was not too late last week. I am horrified at the loss to all humanity, and especially ashamed that it happened because people who claim to be acting in my name did absolutely nothing to prevent it. Voting one way or the other will not return or restore several millenia worth of stolen, broken, or burned irreplaceable artifacts and manuscripts. Our "leaders" in both parties bear responsibility for failing to prevent this ineffable loss. We will be watching carefully to see what this and future administrations do about controlling the inevitable trade in these artifacts. Anything less than zealous investigation, arrest, confiscation, and restoration will be unacceptable. Mr. Spicehandler is right, we have no choice but to "see what we can do from here," but it is an unpartisan and incontrovertible fact that it DID NOT have to happen this way. Respectfully and sadly, --shannon (I, too, speak for myself and not for my institution) __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]