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Submitted by coldrum --
The Iraq war is actually a war against the past, present, and future.
It is a war against the past because the occupiers are implementing a program of cultural destruction.
The most egregious example of this was the looting of the National Museum of Iraq after the fall of Baghdad in 2003.
Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003, but no U.S. troops were stationed at the National Museum of Iraq to protect it until April 16. At the time, U.S. commanders said they needed all their soldiers for the war effort, but two dozen soldiers could have prevented the looting of the National Museum of Iraq, which is also called the Baghdad Museum.
A large number of Sumerian tablets and seals were also stolen from the Baghdad Museum and from archaeological sites. Unscrupulous merchants in Jordan and Kuwait have bought stolen Iraqi antiquities and have paid up to $57,000 for a Sumerian tablet, Venezuelan writer Fernando Baez stated.
Over 14,000 items were stolen from the Baghdad Museum, including 33 major artifacts and 5,000 extremely valuable cylinder seals, and fifteen major items of the museum’s galleries were seriously damaged.
In March 2008, UNESCO said that between 3,000 and 7,000 items from the museum’s collection were still missing.
The 5000-year-old Warka Vase was stolen from the museum but returned in June 2003, although it had been broken into fourteen pieces, which was its original state when it was first excavated.
The Mask of Warka, also known as the Lady of Uruk, which dates back to 3100 BC, was also looted from the Baghdad Museum but was recovered in September 2003 and returned to the museum.
And the approximately 4500-year-old Harp of Ur, which is one of the oldest stringed musical instruments in the world, was broken, and its gold inlay was ripped out and stolen.
In addition, serious damage has been inflicted on Ur, Uruk, Babylon, Nineveh, Ctesiphon, Nibru, and other important archaeological sites.
In 2005, it was reported that U.S.-led coalition forces had caused irreparable damage to Babylon and that the 2600-year-old paving stones of the Processional Way of Babylon had been crushed by tanks.
A UNESCO report issued in 2009 said U.S.-led occupation forces caused extensive damage to Babylon and carried out “a grave encroachment on this internationally known archaeological site.”
The report added, “During their presence in Babylon, the MNF-I (Multi-National Forces) and contractors employed by them, mainly KBR, directly caused major damage to the city by digging, cutting, scraping, and leveling. Key structures that were damaged include the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way.”
All of these world heritage sites are still being damaged since they are still not being properly safeguarded.
In response to the war against the past, the masses of Iraq must be educated about the need to protect the country’s cultural heritage. Indeed, the masses of the world must be educated about the need to protect the world’s cultural heritage, wherever it might be.
For more, including how the US is somehow responsible for all sectarian violence in Iraq, see http://www.tehrantimes.com.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road