Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader saw some news articles (albeit very short ones) about how some of the most magificent treasures of the National Museum of Afghanistan were hidden and thus preserved for decades. The Washington Post just put up a good article on this story of a few good people who were determined to preserve their country’s heritage. Here is the opening:

It was then, on the eve of the Soviets’ 1979 invasion, that a small group of Afghans put love of art and country above all else and hid many of their country’s cherished national treasures. These museum guards, curators and other antiquities lovers became known as the “keyholders” because they held the keys, literally and figuratively, to a priceless fortune in art, including 22,000 pieces of gold known as the Bactrian Hoard. And they pledged never to give up their secret.

Years turned into decades, and Afghanistan became a failed state, the battleground of a succession of warlords, drug lords, tribal chiefs, terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists. They included Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, which ordered the destruction of any art with a human likeness and in March 2001 blew up two giant stone Buddhas in Bamian.

Kabul became a killing field, and entire families lived on less than $1 a day. The National Museum in Kabul was bombed and looted, and rumors circulated that its treasures were fetching millions on the international black market. One keyholder was tortured, international art officials say. Another survived by selling potatoes in the Kabul market. Through it all, they kept their secret.

It takes a very special type of person to be a good curator to begin with. These Afghan “keyholders” are truely special people. To endure what they have endured to preserve priceless treasures for the sake of their countrymen, and to do so with no renumeration or thought of reward. Those people are, themselves, national treasures to the Afghan people.

One wonders… Would the Archivist of the United States, in a “Red Dawn” senario for instance, hide the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, then not talk under torture, to preserve our national documents? Would the Secretary of the Smithsonian preserve some of the treasures in his care under similar circumstances? Would Laura Bush (or some future First Lady) grab the Lansdowne Portrait on her way out the door of the White House in the face of advancing armies? (BTW, your Maximum Leader thinks that Laura Bush probably would…)

What courage and patriotism these brave Afghanis have demonstrated to the world and to their countrymen.

Carry on.