Grab and Run

Time's Simon Robinson reports from Iraq:

Much has been written about how Iraqis complicated the task of rebuilding their country by looting it after Saddam Hussein's regime fell. In the case of the international airport outside Baghdad, however, the theft and vandalism were conducted largely by victorious American troops, according to U.S. officials, Iraqi Airways staff members and other airport workers. The troops, they say, stole duty-free items, needlessly shot up the airport and trashed five serviceable Boeing airplanes.

"Soldiers do this stuff all the time, everywhere. It's warfare," one military official told Robinson. "But the conflict was over when this was done. These are just bored soldiers."