Our current war in Iraq began officially on March 20, 2003. I have a feeling history will record that we began to lose that war on April 9, three weeks later.

Wednesday is the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to coalition forces. Wednesday is also the fifth anniversary of the looting of the Iraqi National Museum.

Even as American troops guarded the oil ministry in Baghdad, well-trained raiders ransacked the city 's museums, seizing the cultural treasures that symbolize Iraq 's role as the cradle of human civilization.

The rape of Iraq 's cultural heritage didn 't stop there, however. Insurgents -- and, for that matter, innocent Iraqis just trying to make a few bucks -- continue to dig up relics that date to the beginning of civilization.

"It 's not just the museum but the whole country being raided, " explains Gordon Govier, public information officer for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in Madison and an active member of the Madison Biblical Archaeology Society. "The whole country is being dug up and sold on the black market. "

Funds raised are, apparently, also being used to finance their attacks on our sons and daughters by those same insurgents.

Col. Matthew Bogdanes, the Marine assigned to oversee antiquities investigations, says insurgents raise money with what they can find. In Afghanistan, al-Qaida sells opium. "Well, we don 't have opium in Iraq. What we have is an almost endless supply of antiquities, so they 're using antiquities " to finance insurgent raids.

But, unfortunate as that may be, does the looting of antiquities really spell the loss of a war?

I don 't know that you can make that case militarily. But military victory, should it ever come, is just one step in "winning " a war. What needs to follow is the establishment of a new society, one based on a people 's rich heritage and sustained by a people 's pride. A society that can 't even protect its priceless treasures isn 't going to establish a new order. Think, for a moment, of how we protect our the Declaration of Independence, keeping it in a guarded, climate controlled case.

When our invading armies protected an oil ministry but received no orders to guard the National Museum in Baghdad, we made a strong statement about our priorities in Iraq. The heritage of the Iraqi people, a heritage that traces its history all the way back to the Old Testament patriarch Abraham, was not as important as Iraq 's other heritage, millions of barrels of oil beneath the sand.

Even Saddam Hussein, wretched as he was, was able to protect his nation 's cultural artifacts. He used his nation 's history to wrap himself in a mantle of delusional greatness. But what is left to unify the Iraqi people now?

When we failed to protect the cultural heritage that defines a people, a heritage older than governments, or, even, religions, we set the stage for the defeat of the grand ideals we had for rebuilding Iraqi society.

Contact Wineke at bwineke@madison.com or at 252-6146. Read Wineke 's blog at www.madison.com/wsj/blogs.