SANE AND SENSIBLE RHETORIC ALERT:

Iraq's Plundered Past: Picking up the pieces in Baghdad

In the current (July/August) issue of Archaeology Magazine the editoral by Jane C. Waldbaum, President of the Archaeological Institute of America, is a model of what to say and do about the tragic cultural looting in Iraq. She explains simply and clearly why the looting is still important even thought it was on a smaller scale that originally thought, she deplores the disaster without making unjustified accusations, and she goes through the positive steps that the AIA is taking to help with the reconstruction. Well done, Jane and the AIA.