Should we be surprised that some of our soldiers and members of the embedded press decided it was okay to bring home some souvenirs from their trip to Iraq?
Government officials are on the record as having made comments like:
"These goods are rightfully the property of the people of Iraq."
"This is theft. We are there to liberate. This must cease."
"This activity is clearly illegal."
Illegal?! You mean its against the law for us to take things that don't belong to us? Well, call me a stickler for consistency, but isn't it hypocritical that our military could preemptively invade a sovereign nation, our president could violate the Constitution by declaring "war" without Congressional approval, and our generals could violate the Geneva Conventions by intentionally targeting journalists, yet our Customs officials are coming down hard on G.I. Joe and Fox News Guy for indulging themselves in some harmless, petty larceny?
Its not like they stole some "ancient art and writings and gold jewelry that is 4,000 years old." And I'm not "bemoaning the lack of pre-emptive U.S. military force to protect Baghdad's national museum" either. We're talking about a gold-plated AK-47 rifle here! What's the big deal? Can't they have a little spoils? They did win, after all, and doesn't that make everything permissible?