Iraq Accuses U.S. of Damaging Ancient City

[cal04]

American forces are damaging the ancient city of Kish and must withdraw from the 5,000-year-old archaeological site, an Iraqi ministry said Thursday. The Ministry of State for Tourism and Antiquities Affairs said U.S. forces had set up a camp in Kish, near Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

In a statement, the ministry said the U.S. military was preventing anyone from entering this important archaeological site to assess the damage, which was not specified. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

Last year, the British Museum said that U.S.-led troops using the ancient Iraqi city of Babylon as a base had damaged and contaminated artifacts dating back thousands of years in one of the world's most important ancient sites.

The U.S. military then said all earth moving had been halted and that all engineering work were discussed with the head of the Babylon museum.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5723475,00.html

[Roland99]

1. Just winning more hearts and minds!

[wordpix]

12. bringing democracy to Middle East, 911, terror, 911, bringing democracy

[derby378]

2. Just ONE?

Gee, I thought they were accused of spray-painting graffiti on every ziggurat and shrine they came across before letting the K-9 units pee on them.

[TomInTib]

3. Reports such as this one are so sadly sickening.

There is no undoing that sort of destruction.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. One can only imagine the kind of mess that they would make of

a place like that. I understand they were filling sand bags from the digs.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. That's what we get from several generations of turning the

teaching of history over to football coaches. (When I was considering a career as a teenager, I told the guidance counselor that I was thinking of becoming a high school history teacher. He told me to forget it, that it was impossible to get a history teaching job without a coaching endorsement.)

I've told this story before, but a Japanese reporter who was embedded with the troops in the early days after the invasion was very excited when he found out that "his" unit was going to be camping near the ruins of Babylon.

He was shocked to find that none of the solidiers had ever heard of it. (And yes, I believe it. My high school, nearly forty years ago, had the poorest excuse for a history curriculum imaginable--American history taught by the football coach and world history that just jumped around to various thematic topics and never said anything about the ancient world)

[LibertyLover]

10. Same here -

the football coach taught my 11th grade American history class in high school. My mom was a history teacher before she became a librarian and I grew up reading and hearing about history, so I loved it. I knew more history than the coach did at the age of 16. He spent most of the class diagraming football plays. I spent it reading. But I thought it was just an aberation and only happened in my school - until years later I did a presentation for my goddaughter's middle school history class on Egypt. The kids loved it and didn't want to leave when the bell rang. Afterwards the teacher said to me that it looked like I really liked history. I told him I did. His response was that he hated history, hated teaching and only did it because he got the summers off. Oy. To this day, my godson and goddaughter tell me that the only reason they know any history at all is because of me. I hope that I can instill a love of history in my own daughter as she grows up.

Side note - I did my undergraduate work at the Univeristy of Chicago's Oriental Institute and knew an archaeologist who worked at Kish. He said it was a fabulously interesting site. Poor Mac Gibson - he must be pulling out his hair.

[sabra]

6. more good news

:sarcasm:

[DELUSIONAL]

7. Americas are such stupid hicks -- Ugly Americans.

with a few exceptions.

I remember years ago when I was a college student in Europe -- when Nixon was President. It was easier to be Canadian than American in Europe. As college students living in Youth hostels we would watch the rich LOUD American tourists make fools of themselves.

Now when I travel overseas -- I make it known quickly that I didn't vote for that bunch running the country. And the same damned rich LOUD ugly Americans are still making fools of themselves -- and the locals look at the Americans (rich LOUD ugly Americans) in disgust.

No respect for the history or the culture -- American "leaders" are just dedicated to destruction -- hell history is old -- who can remember history anyway???

What a nasty legacy this current bunch of monsters are leaving for future generations.

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. I remember an attitude I saw when I lived in SanDee

.
.
.

I lived in and around SanDee for 14 months, from 79-80, including National City, La Mesa, Bonita, La Jolla, and Mission Valley

I worked around "the mile of cars" - National City I believe it was, and some of the dealers there expounded the theory of how much they had "done" for the country, that the "Indians" just didn't use the resources that were there -

yeah, right - almost completely exterminating a species (buffalo) just for their tongues????

The natives had no need to fight wars globally to survive, they used the land wisely

- but our new "method" requires resources from thousands of miles away

And murderous governments to support that lifestyle

Christopher Columbus "discovered" America

Then Europe started raping it

(sigh)

[JohnnyJ]

9. Considering how much shit we've already blown up over there.....

it wouldn't suprise me.

[Gregorian]

11. True American values at work.

It seems ever more clear to me that the one thing America is good at is destruction. When we bombed the museum with the Code of Hammurabe, all while guarding the Oil Ministry, I knew exactly why we were there.
I shouldn't confine it to Americans. And I can't ignore what we have done that is good. I mean, we spent billions to go to the moon so we could have space pens and Tang. Not a bad deal, really.

Call me cynical.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

13. American troops in Babylon.

if we had a Democrat in power the fundies would be calling him the anti-christ for occupying the historic symbol of worldly power.

but since the prez is a republican, theiy're content, because he's "their" Anti-christ.