Who turned out the lights?

I'm a little tired of newly free Iraqis using every opportunity to talk to the media (and it does seem like there are a lot of those, doesn't it?) to blame the looting on the U.S. Marines.

I wonder if the citizens of Baghdad have forgotten who looted the city at the very first chance?

The Marines are my neighbors. Yes, some of the jarheads from HQ were actually deployed. They are extremely polite. I'm sure they'd like to have the power and the water back on, too. Some talking head on CNN--there are so many of them, I forget which one, but it might have been Robin Wright from the Los Angeles Times--mentioned that the looting may have spread to the power stations and that's what the problem is getting the lights back on.

I'm still shaking my head. The Iraqi Museum looting may have been an inside job, which intimates that it was run by thugs. I count as friends a working archaeologist and several museum staffers. I think all of them would lay down their lives in front of a precious artifact like the ones destroyed in Baghdad. Loyalist solders, on the other hand...

In other words, I am not much of a patriot, but I think the man on the streets in Baghdad is blaming the wrong side for the continuing problems in the city, and I think they should all just take a deep breath.

before - after