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Correct. In fact the museum was closed in September of 1980 when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and Iran started lobbing missiles into Baghdad. So the museum was closed from that time until opening for a day in 2003 and then until this opening. [It's] only been open fewer than a half dozen times and never open to the general public. The museum itself, in the last several decades has been called Saddam's gift shop by the average Iraqi. (See pictures of treasure hunting in Afghanistan...
...lived in the museum for my entire first tour in Iraq in 2003. What it took to get from there - a devastated, closed, sealed-shut museum that had been looted by neighborhood residents, government officials and some museum staff members - to today where it's able to open a couple of galleries for a couple of hours relied almost exclusively on the extraordinary heroism, conscientiousness and integrity of the Iraqi people. From April of 2003 until November 2003 - the last time I physically hand-counted the items - almost 2000 different antiquities stolen from the museum were returned to the museum...
...also took some courage on the part of the Iraqi government. There is controversy within the government. The minister of culture believes that the museum should not be opened until all galleries are able to be opened and the security situation improves. That's a legitimate, fair argument. I disagree with that argument, but it's a fair one. The ministry of tourism and antiquities, on the other hand, shares my belief, which is: open it today, one gallery for one hour. And tomorrow it's one gallery for two hours. And on and on. And you enable...
...Gates did say he's sure of one thing: He doesn't want to keep boosting U.S. and allied troop numbers there. "I've been very concerned about an open-ended commitment of increasing numbers of troops for a variety of reasons," he said, "including the size of our footprint in Afghanistan and my worry that the Afghans come to see us as not their partners and allies but as part of their problem." (See pictures of Afghanistan's mean streets...
...missing. It's always a painful reminder to me, and until each and every piece that has been stolen from the museum is returned, I will have considered my mission in Iraq to have been a failure. When the Iraqi people have everything returned to display in a museum open to all. That's how I define success...