April 11, 2003
ARSON, ANARCHY, fear, hatred, hysteria,
ARSON, ANARCHY, fear, hatred, hysteria, looting, revenge, savagery, suspicion and a suicide bombing. Welcome to Robert Fisk's cavalcade of chaos!
It was the day of the looter. They trashed the German embassy and hurled the ambassador's desk into the yard. I rescued the European Union flag - flung into a puddle of water outside the visa section - as a mob of middle-aged men, women in chadors and screaming children rifled through the consul's office and hurled Mozart records and German history books from an upper window. The Slovakian embassy was broken into a few hours later.
At least the flag - the precious flag of the European Union! - has been saved.
At the headquarters of Unicef, which has been trying to save and improve the lives of millions of Iraqi children since the 1980s, an army of thieves stormed the building, throwing brand new photocopiers on top of each other and sending cascades of UN files on child diseases, pregnancy death rates and nutrition across the floors.
This "looting" sounds terrifically precise and well-considered. Farewell, stupid UN documents! I'm surprised that the photocopiers were attacked; usually they are guarded by fierce copier cops.
The Americans may think they have "liberated" Baghdad but the tens of thousands of thieves - they came in families and cruised the city in trucks and cars searching for booty - seem to have a different idea what liberation means.
Hail Saddam, who kept the peace.
Posted by Tim Blair at April 11, 2003 12:28 PM