Not So Much with the Looting

This story has been collecting steam for a few weeks, and WaPo finally put it all in one place. The looted Iraqi National Museum of Antiquities isn’t missing 170,000 artifacts, which would be their entire collection. It’s not missing the 3,000 artifacts estimated by this Saturday’s initial report from the State Department and the Customs Service. It’s actually missing only 33. Still bad, but not the “rape of civilization” as one archeologist described it. The confusion apparently came from some hyperbole from the museum’s respected director, Donny George. He has since apologized for the alarmist remarks.