I read this article in the Independent, and felt strongly enough about it to share with everyone at DeafDC. To sum it up, priceless historical sites in Iraq are being destroyed by…us.
It is a fresh take on an increasingly damaging war in Iraq. If one can read this and say, “We should still stay the course in Iraq”… Have we as a society put aside our values to the point where the sacredness of the past is sacrificed at the altar of today?
2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq’s historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation.
Keep reading at It is the death of history - The Indepedent.
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6 Comments
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That is very old news about the Dubya-Dicky (GWB)Adminstration screwing up the post-invasion plan for Iraq!
Yes, we, the Americans, are directly responsible for the most military and logistic screw-ups in the humankind history to secure Iraq’s cultural and historical arficats from being pillaried and sold for private collections.
That’s why President Harry Truman decided not to nuke one particular Japanese city because of its historical values and chose Hirshomia and another city.
Where are our outrages with the Dubya-Dicky adminstration for their failures to secure and preserve the centuries-old of humankind arficats???
The Dubya-Dicky adminstration really don’t give any damn about the Middle East’s cultural and historical artificats since those stuffs are not Christian-related. This adminstration would give a different treatment if artificats are signficiant to Christians.
Or the Dubya-Dicky adminstration want to destroy any physical evidences about many Babeloyonian tablets to be such an inspiration for the fables of Jesus Christ as Son of God via the Babeloyonian legend, Mirtha with heavenly powers.
Many Christian and Hebrew scriptures come largely from the Babeloyian legends and written stories.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
I always get pissed off when I get reminded of the fact that U.S. Army units were ordered to patrol the Oil Ministry instead of the museums and other cultural places. That tells you what Rumsfeld’s priorities were. Contrast this behavior with the fact that the U.S. Army in the aftermath of WWII protected art and cultural sites and had units dedicated to recovering lost artwork.
I know. Just a complete waste of our goodwill…
I agree. I suspect part of it is racism– Europe and Europeans merit more protection compared with other nations and cultures. You see this in the newspapers anytime a museum is robbed or taken advantage of. A Monet is stolen? Horrors. A pre-Columbian site is looted in Central America, or ancient cities are destroyed in the Middle East? The only reaction comes from the archaeology and history communities.
I will say one thing in defense of our government, which has been otherwise derelict in its responsibilities to the culture and history of Iraq and its neighbors: none of the major sites were bombed. Someone in Defense or the government itself made sure this didn’t happen. Of course, in the wake of the initial invasion, all this did was preserve these antiquities for looters.
Thanks for bringing this up again, Bobby, even if it is somewhat “old news”– it’s important to be reminded of what happened. Of course, it’s also hard to stretch this out into a discussion because most sane, reasonable people have the same reaction you do.
The fact that cultural artefacts are being destroyed or that targets are chosen acording to cultural value, are a moot point, when there is a war being waged.
What is the value of those cultural artefacts when everything else or other things are being destroyed?
What good is a museum when a city [or coutnry is in ruins]?
Historical value. Like that saying goes… ‘We are doomed to repeat history if we don’t learn from it.’