Fifty Centuries of Human History...

The BBQ Pit
1

Dear Citizens of Baghdad:

I am thrilled for you. Really. Depite my misgivings about this war, the fact that you have been liberated from the tyrrany of Saddam Hussein is certainly a very shiny silver lining to this cloud.

But why, why is it that an armed mob marched into the Baghdad Museum and take, or destroy everything?

Cuneiform tablets dating back to the Code of Hammurabi, priceless artifacts from Ur, Babylon, and Ninevah, it’s all gone.

FUCK!

Fuck the idiotic mob who did this and fuck the American forces who didn’t stop it.

These were objects that had managed to survive thousands of years of human history. These things were part of our heritage as a species. The land where Iraq now sits was the cradle of all human civilization, and now massive amounts of its records and relics are gone. Forever.

(FROM http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~27080~1322461,00.html)

*…an item-by-item inventory hardly seemed to capture the magnitude of what had occurred. More powerful, in its way, was the action of one museum official, who hurried away through the piles of smashed ceramics and torn books and burned-out torches of rags soaked in gasoline that littered the museums corridors to find the glossy catalog of an exhibition of “silk road civilization” that was held in Japan’s ancient capital of Nara in 1988.

Turning to 50 pages of items lent by the Iraqi museum for the exhibition, he said that none of the antiquities pictured remained after the looting. They included ancient stone carvings of bulls and kings and princesses; copper shoes and cuneiform tablets; tapestry fragments and ivory figurines of goddesses and women and Nubian porters; friezes of soldiers and ancient seals and tablets on geometry; and ceramic jars and urns and bowls, all dating back at least 2,000 years, some more than 5,000 years.

“All gone, all gone,” he said. “All gone in two days.”*

This is kind of a weak rant I know, but I’m really at a loss to say anything else.

:frowning: :mad: :frowning: :mad: :frowning:

2

It is horrible, I agree, but Baghdad is a huge city. You can’t expect the US military to guard every cultural site, especially when there is still fighting going on.

3

Oh. My. Fucking. God.
:eek:

(As a historian, this appauls and disgusts me beyond words…)

4

You can expect the US to guard one fucking museum. I’ll never forgive this administration for failing to do so. How could they not have been aware of the importance of that museum?They sure could find the resources to guard those fucking oil wells, though, couldn’t they?

Bastards! (both the looters and the administration that failed to protect our precious human heritage.

5

I hope that at least some of the artifacts will turn up intact when people either turn them in or try to sell them. The Army didn’t mind cordoning the oild ministry.

6

This wan’t “every cultural site” it was the national museum of Iraq which ought to have been protected by the US troops.

That said, this is certainly an argument against the repatriation of cultural treasures to the Third World. If the British had swiped those items for the British Museum back in the day, they would not have been vulnerable to destruction by the vulgar mob.

7

Fuckin’ amen! If I had no other reason to hate the Bush administration and this “damn fool war,” this would be more than plenty. It sickens and enrages me.

8

Holy shit, you mean to say that this war wasn’t about protecting old Iraqi stuff? We have all been lied to!!!

9

That’s right Brutus, continue to be the asshole. I may not get as worked up as the others on this, but this is a tragic loss. It’s a loss that could’ve been avoided, if someone cared. Apparently, no one in the Administration did.

10

Thank you. Troops posted inside and outside the building in the same city. The Oil Ministry Building is being perfectly preserved in this war that isn’t about oil.

11

Crucial to the rebuilding of Iraq: Oil revenues.

Not crucial to the rebuilding of Iraq: Funny old carvings.

12

Brutus,
I could argue that the tourism those “funny old carvings” (what a stunningly ignorant thing to call them) would have brought in was equally as crucial to the rebuilding of those oil wells. In fact, I could argue that they were more important. Iraq could be a center of historical tourism on a par with Egypt and Israel. Iraq’s historical heritage could be a centerpiece for them as a nation. Oil is finite, History is forever.

13

damnit, I meant to say "The tourism those artfacts could have brought in was equally as important to the rebuilding of Iraq as those oil wells.

Typical of Bush and his cronies that they have no concept of value beyond the most obvious and venal source of wealth.

14

I think that you misunderstand the role that tourism might have played in getting Iraq back into the world community. I mean why doesn’t Mexico tear down all those Mayan pryramids and museums and convert the land to agricultural uses?

I would love to travel to Iraq and see the place where so many crucial advances got a foothold. Sites that have been excavated are one thing, but without the actual artifacts, our understanding is diminished and future study is jeopardized.

15

Are you really so lost in your ideology that you can’t appreciate the impact of the cultural loss here? Is pure monetary wealth the only thing that matters to you?

Brutus, you are not only a sad example of the extreme right wing, you are a sad example of humanity.

16

I by no means support the wanton destruction of historical stuff. But blame the people responsible, and only the people responsible: The looters. And I have a feeling that the oil revenues will have a bit left over to buy back the burgaled goodies.

17

I am as liberal as they come, but since

you would not forgive this administration anything, your words are meaningless.

If the left wants to remain relevant in the next election, take a stance, stand by it. Don’t just oppose everything the Bush administration does.

<MP>This isn’t an argument!</MP>

18

Tell you what. Lets give you a family to support. Then lets not give you a job to support them with. Then lets see what matters more to you: Pure monetary wealth, or the impact of some ‘cultural loss’.

19

Brutus, you continue to give conservatism a bad name.

“Funny old carvings”; “burgled goodies”. Good God, man, have you no idea that Iraq was the home of the first flowerings of human civilization? We owe the concept of a 24-hour day and 60 seconds in a minute to the Babylonians and before them to Sumer. The first written language ecvolved in Iraq and many of the personages and events that were pivotal to history happened in Iraq. One of the earliest epic poems, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” was composed in Iraq. The kings of Babylon played crucial roles in the events of the Bible–have you no idea of where our civilization comes from?

20

If that museum had been protected, if the right measures had been taken, and a single civilian had been shot in the process, what would you say then?

This is a lose-lose situation. Why aren’t you blaming the Iraqis who have spent two days wrecking their own city?