Ancient Mesopotamia, modern Iraq: once again, bombing, looting threaten cradle of civilization

[madfloridian]

From a March 2003 Newsweek article. I remember reading this, and remember how sad I felt. Most of the ones cheering as the bombs fell and the chaos ensued...had no idea we were bombing the cradle of civilization. Or if they knew they did not care.


Ulmonen/Magnum for Newsweek..Babylon: a government guest house for VIP visitors

March 24 issue - It had been conquered and re-conquered a dozen or more times, by (among others) the Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Parthians, Arabs, Ottomans and British, and in February 1991, yet another foreign power raised its flag over the ancient city of Ur, near the mouth of the Euphrates: the Americans.

Daring the allies to bomb the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham, Iraqis had parked their jets near Ur’s 4,000-year-old ziggurat, but the planes were shot up all the same. American soldiers toured the ancient tower, then got out their entrenching tools and began digging for souvenirs. A forlorn Iraqi gatekeeper ran among them, wailing protests in Arabic, until U.S. officers put a stop to the looting. Last week, when NEWSWEEK visited the site, it was virtually deserted, except for a lone guide, the son of the old gatekeeper, keeping a wary eye on the American and British warplanes streaking overhead. “Ninety-nine percent of Americans don’t know the country they’ll be bombing is Mesopotamia,” says Dr. Huda Ammash, a high-ranking Baath Party official. “Our country has served humanity for so long, now it’s up to the international community to help protect Iraq.”

But we did not protect it. And I hear we built an base over some ancient sites. And our own country had very little clue what we were doing.

The US was given information about what to spare well in advance. That is the saddest part. We just did not care.

In January scholars gave Defense Department officials the names of archeological sites they hoped to spare. ”The military had a list of 150,” says McGuire Gibson, professor of Mesopotamian archeology at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. “We gave them over 4,000 more—but that only covers the 10 to 15 percent of the country we’ve studied.” Gibson is cautiously encouraged by the record of the earlier war, in which allied bombing spared most important monuments, even those adjoining military targets that were destroyed. But he’s also aware that in the featureless plains of southern Iraq, the only high ground consists of the ruins of ancient cities. If the Iraqis make a stand, these mounds, which can be as much as four miles around and 80 feet high, are the natural places to do it.

At least Saddam protected the antiquities. We did not.

It’s a minor irony that Saddam’s brutal police state has been exceptionally conscientious about protecting Iraq’s cultural heritage, partly for his own megalomaniacal reasons. A reconstruction of a Babylonian palace in the 1980s was accomplished with bricks inscribed with a tribute to Saddam Hussein, “protector of civilization, rebuilt this palace which belonged to Nebuchadnezzar II.” In that, of course, Saddam is no different than a hundred others who have ruled this ancient land and left their marks on it. Now, perhaps, more than ever, the world ought to be studying their fates.

We will always be defined by this pre-emptive invasion. It really doesn't matter what words are said now in excuse...it is already done.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Most of the ones cheering thought that Iraq was responsible for 9/11

So what are the chances that they would either know or care about the history of that region? Hand them another beer.

[Webster Green]

4. Our idiotic pResident** recently termed Iraq: "A young society"..

What a dumbass!

[malaise]

10. No need to be so kind

Bush is a fucking moron.

[slipslidingaway]

2. K&R n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks for this post -- K&R.

[madfloridian]

5. Sad, isn't it?

I grew up knowing things like this. I remember my history teacher discussing it often. I mentioned to a couple of our kids last year, they had not heard it. It did not sink in to their brains. One even said how did I learn that? Guess they don't teach it as much anymore.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Sadly, they don't. I understand most college freshmen have had neither basic...

World History, or even basic American History.

[mod mom]

6. It's about destroying a culture with these thugs. :(

[shance]

7. Floridian, we as Americans are not doing it, however a number of greedy, wealthy white men are using

our country, our kids and our name by which to do it.

Where are all the other leaders in Congress to stop this unprecedented evil? I am embarrassed at the horrific leadership we have in Washington right now. They are more interested in the next soundbite than the deaths and murders occurring in New Orleans and abroad. Our leaders could be mobilizing us as citizens. Instead they are having us arrested when we dare to sit in at their offices.

For Newsweek, a government sponsored propaganda piece, to insinuate oh well, its been done time and time again, thats just how these things go, is utter bullshit and yet more insulting tripe coming from Newsweek.

Yes it has been overtaken by other regimes however, none have been as destructive, vicious, careless and totally ignorant of the sacred history as this one.
Again these people do not represent me. They hold my country hostage.

[madfloridian]

8. In the eyes of the world it is all of us.

"On vient faire le ménage : “We are coming for housekeeping “

Attendez que je finis –instead of finisse- mon jeu : ‘ Wait for I finish my game ‘ (I cannot reproduce the grammar mistake in English – well, I think so ... ) . It needs a subjonctive instead a present..."



As my friend says, in their minds it is us doing it. He knows better, but he can't get past it for our friendship across the oceans. He thinks we can fix it.