The Looting that wasn’t

You’ve heard all about the looting of Iraq’s precious cultural artifacts, of course, and what a great tragedy it was and all that. Thing is, all that you read is propaganda put out by the Baathist Party to make America look bad:

So, there’s the picture: 100,000-plus priceless items looted either under the very noses of the Yanks, or by the Yanks themselves. And the only problem with it is that it’s nonsense. It isn’t true. It’s made up. It’s bollocks.

So why were the media so quick to believe the spin? Here are two reasons why:

The first is the credulousness of many western academics and others who cannot conceive that a plausible and intelligent fellow-professional might have been an apparatchiks of a fascist regime and a propagandist for his own past. The second is that – these days – you cannot say anything too bad about the Yanks and not be believed.

Next time we hear a story like this, let’s require some proof.

Via Instapundit.