Unfortunately this sort of thing has been going on since the invasion. There's another article from the Guardian here printed in 2005 and pertaining to the destruction of the ancient city of Babylon when they decided to build an airbase on the site, which is of global importance.

It's interesting to note the outcry following the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan (Wikipedia article here though Google provides many links to editorials on this subject) by the Taliban, and the lack of outcry about the cultural destruction wrought by the US Military. I suspect that this is because whilst the American people do seem to regard their culture (quite rightly in some cases - not Disney though) as sacrosanct, they seem to the outside observer to have very little respect for anyone else's.

As for blaming the Iraqis, whilst they did undoubtably looted much themselves, had the invaders had a plan in place to guard the cultural treasures of Iraq then much of that debacle might have been avoided. American service personnel also vandalised and looted Baghdad Airport after it was secure - Time article here.