guarding museums and libraries ranks rather low on the priorities list.

As for the museum, I suspect we're likely to hear a lot more in the weeks to come. According to a news segment I saw yesterday, the museum staff was trained to move all the valuable artifacts to a safe location in less than 24 hours. They had 3 weeks from the start of hostilities before the fall of Baghdad to move the most important stuff. Furthermore, the vaults were opened with keys, suggesting any thefts were an inside job. The replicas were left untouched and only the most valuable stuff is missing, suggesting those who took the stuff knew exactly what they were doing. This may not have been the work of the mob.

As for a great deal of the looting, some was done by average people expressing their pent up frustration of decades of repression. Quite a bit of that stuff is already being returned (the Imams are reminding them that stealing is a sin). ABC News had a story on it a couple days ago.

Quite a bit more of the looting and stealing is the work of criminals rather than the average Iraqi citizens. They saw an opportunity for a fast score and they took it. Quite likely, a good deal of the crime is being committed by the Special Republican Guard types who shed their uniforms and blended into the crowds. Odds are they're the ones taking potshots at Americans, too, to stir up trouble.

Ultimately, the Iraqi people will restore their own law and order. They've already started with their own version of neighborhood watches and patrols. Their efforts still have a long way to go but they're moving in the right direction. Sure, Saddam did maintain a degree of law and order (excluding himself and his inner circle, of course) just as Mussolini made the trains run on time. Compared to living under a totalitarian dictator, an unsettled transitionary period is still preferable to most people.