Letting hospitals be looted doesn't protect human lives
Nor in the long does letting educational and public utility system buildings be destroyed. IMO, with hindsight I admit, we should've allowed one day of chaos and then prohibited looting except for Baath party buildings and the palaces of regime leaders, shooting anyone who tries to loot elsewhere.
And of course there's the issue of protecting the Oil Ministry building... can you say "inept public relations"?