Free Iraq

Don't forget that Bush is a man who revels in his ignorance and lack of curiosity, and to their shame the American people apparently like him even more for it.
So given their contempt for other nations it is no surprise that there would be at best indifference to the destruction of Iraq's heritage, and one of the first great icons of our common civilisation.
Worse than that however, I greatly fear that the religious fanatics who seem to have so much influence on US policy at the moment regard the destruction of Babylon with positive glee. The world is truly now in the hands of lunatics and simpletons.
As for the silence of the rest of the world's media, I think there are two issues here: firstly the difficulty in anybody carrying out any reporting from Iraq, but secondly and most importantly the fact that news coverage in the Western world has largely been reduced to simplistic soundbites for the simple-minded. I would however expect to see something soon in the non-English language press, especially in countries such as France.
The damage of course goes beyond the most obvious vandalism - the destruction of context at the site risks making it all but useless as a source of information about the past.
 

I would have responded at length as a Comment, but I am presently gathering more information on "the religious fanatics who seem to have so much influence on US policy", to be posted soon.
That is, aside from my comments on the Evangelist missionaries in Iraq that I have posted on January 11, 2005.
 

http://img.lenta.ru/iraq/2005/01/16/babylon/picture.jpg
 

Kevin, the media in Britain have not been silent! The main report was on the front page of yesterday's Guardian - with a HUGE satellite photograph - and in the same newspaper there were no less than three other reports about it, as well as the leader article; and it was reported by the independent Channel4 tv. There has been huge shock here.

Archaeologists were horrified by the confirmation of reports which have been filtering out of Iraq for months.

"Outrage is hardly the word, this is just dreadful," said Lord Redesdale, an archaeologist and head of the all-party parliamentary archaeological group. "These are world sites. Not only is what the American forces are doing damaging the archaeology of Iraq, it's actually damaging the cultural heritage of the whole world." In my view, it is another manifestation of the "culture of impunity" that poisons the American military from top to bottom. ("A fish rots from the head down" is a saying that comes to mind.)
Rachel, a Brit in London
 

To: Claude Dorsel

Would you happen to know the story of the man prostrated beneath the Lion?

No instant gratification, I assure you.
 

Imad,
I am a Palestinian supporter and I support the Iraqi resistance. My concern is that the resistance is not broad enough. It needs to have a broad political program that includes the majority Shiites. It is very important for the resistance to woo the average Shiite from the traditional traitorous leadership of Sistani and the gang.

I would like to hear your views on this issue. Thanks in advance.
 

I do agree with you.
If the Shi'a do join the Resistance, the occupation would be over sooner.
 

"Would you happen to know the story of the man prostrated beneath the Lion?"

No, please tell us.
 

Hello, blessings to you, your family and friends

As an american citizen i'm ashamed at the way our current administration has lied to try to gain control of your resources and to establish the bases being built to enable attempts to control the middle east. We blog daily at http://www.majorityreportradio.com/weblog/ and post Bahgdad Burning as often as she posts. River is well loved and a admired for her courage as a journalist. Prior to this illegal war there were the biggest global protests ever held. It's becoming more obvious to all that look, that our media is controlled to keep us from seeing the truth. please join us if you will and feel free to post updates articles or just chat. The 'bloggie' is kept wide open so expect trolls and flamers, but be assured the majority are aware that this is a criminal 'scam' that violates everything we hold precious about our country.
 

Just wanted to let readers of this site know that not all Americans approve of Bush, and not all Americans voted for him.
I cannot explain the other half of this country, but I can explain my half. there are thousands of us or more here in US working to try to change this government. Please see my blog site:
http://peopleforchange.blogspot.com/
where I am working on these very issues and commenting.
I am urging Americans to try to make changes, to stand up, to not let ouselves be demeaned in this way as Bush, etc. have done.
there are other sites such as www.dailkos.com where these issues are discussed and you can see the prevelence of opinion and I wish you would post.
Also consider the fact that many Americans do still not believe Bush actually won the election, and are working to bring that out in the open.
We have many problems here.
I wish that other countries could help citizens here by writing letters and emails to Administration and congress. A lot of people here need a wake up call.
This could be done in a peaceful and respectful way.
We are one world after all.
 

To: Claude Dorsel, regarding:
"Would you happen to know the story of the man prostrated beneath the Lion?"
No, please tell us.

One version of it is: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED26Ak06.html

There is another Iraqi version - (try Google or ask an Iraqi friend).
 

I'm so, so sorry about all this. We are sick, evil, stupid, incompetent bastards. There's blood on the hands of the idiots and racists who wanted war. And there's blood on the hands of people like me, who thought the war was a terrible idea but didn't have the intelligence, organization or courage to force our leaders to stop.

It's no consolation for you poor bastards of course, but future generations will be lining up to piss on Bush and Blair's graves. Count on it.

In the mean time, good luck to the Iraqi patriots taking up arms to defend their country. Though it's sad that more of our soldiers will die, that's the only way you'll get us imperialists out.

-Tom (UK)
 

I am an American. Iraqi fury at what is being done to their country and and its citizens is totally legitimate. I am ashamed and I weep with you. Never can I truly know what you have endured. But from a great distance I take your hand and offer my apologies. May we all live to see the day when this administration and all who have made its work possible be hauled before the International Court and tried for the war crimes they have perpetrated.
 

Thank you.
 

One atrocity after another. The ancient city of Babylon is a site of immeasurable value to the world, especially to the people of the region. Such barbarism will not be forgotten. That is the legacy of Bush, shame.

As an American ex-pat., I am astounded and genuinely ashamed of what America has become in the world.
 

Dear Imad,

The information regarding the religious forces behind US policies can be taken from here. I am running a blog and this was published in one of our finest anti-establishment & revolutionary magazines in India called "Tehelka". You can get the religious fundamentalism of US(of course from an Indian perspective )from here. Hope this helps. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main.asp?filename=op013004tarun.asp
 

forgot to add in my comment:
http://driveinn.blogspot.com/2005/01/what-drives-america.html
 

"I am urging Americans to try to make changes, to stand up, to not let ourselves[SIC] be demeaned in this way as Bush, etc. have done. there are other sites such as www.dailkos.com where these issues are discussed and you can see the prevalence[SIC] of opinion and I wish you would post."

Just a word of warning about the dailkos.com site. He collected over $500,000 USD for candidates running in the American 2004 elections. None of his supported candidates won. Kos is entitled to his opinion and I have a deep respect for anyone that can put together a political organization as quickly as he did. I just want people to know he currently represents the minority opinion in America.
 

Dear Sir:

Words cannot express my sense of sadness and frustration at this wanton and ignorant destruction of a monument of civilization. Mr. Bush, our president is a dolt and a cretin both culturally and intellectually.
What he once said comes to mind when asked how history would view the things he has done as president: "Who knows,we'll all be dead."
 

As one of the "educated" Americans who feels that the Bush administration should be held accountable, I apologize for the millions of uneducated Americans. Millions of us tried hard to make a change in this country but unforntunately too many Americans voted, not about the issue of an unjust war, but their religious beliefs. This goes a long way in showing, not only what your country is up against, but those of us in the "minority" have to deat with as well.

I wish I had a suggestion or answer to help your nation but all I can do for now is say I'm sorry!

The Correction
 

I think it is regrettable that there is damage of this nature. I also think that it is unavoidable in many ways. This is a test of will. If they were not being fired upon, the US troops would have no need to fill bags with anything. The longer the violence continues, the longer those troops will stay, and the more damage there will be. There are certainly double standards in the American method, but they are not the only double standards in this conflict.
 

Isn't that bust on the playing card supposed to be the Emperor Sargon of Akkad, not a Babylonian or Sumerian?
 

The longer the violence continues, the longer those troops will stay, and the more damage there will be.# posted by Anonymous : 1:20 PMThis statement is simply not true. Every sign shows that the United States intends to occupy Iraq for decades to come. The US has sacrificed about $200 billion, its global moral authority, and years worth of its primary military capability for the sake of the Iraq invasion. You would have to be both extremely uninformed and extremely naive to think the US does not want maximum return on this investment. The US intends to make Iraq a permanent military platform for force projection and for strategic control on oil pricing, despite almost all Iraqi people wanting the invaders to leave immediately. From this fact, it's clear that these "elections" are intended to create a powerless, illegitimate puppet government and nothing more.

The plain fact is that in order to get the US out of Iraq, it will be necessary for the various Iraqi freedom fighter groups to kill a large number of US soldiers, destroy the strategic oil infrastructure, deter Iraqis from becoming traitors and collaborators, and generally make it plain to the US that its imperial strategy cannot work. If the forthcoming elections result in an outcome as phony as I think they are going to be, many Shiites and the Sadrists will also join these freedom fighters. That should speed up US defeat significantly. (It must also be tempting for some other rich nations to support these Iraqi freedom fighters against the US, in the manner the US supported Islamic fighters in Afghanistan against the USSR. Come on France, Russia and China!)

-Tom (UK)
 

Further to the above response to:
"The longer the violence continues, the longer those troops will stay"..

Listen, why don't they leave?

We can take care of ourselves.
The prime cause for the 'continued violence' is their presence, as they have occupied another country (illegally and under false pretenses) and the people of Iraq are vehemently nationalistic and patriotic.
 

Imad, what is your opinion on what will happen after Jan 30? Specifically, what's going to happen when the weight of Shiite opinion that the US should leave immediately, meets the US determination to stay in Iraq? I haven't seen this discussed by anyone knowledgeable.

-Tom(UK)
 

Tom, well posited.
I believe that if the Shi'a's 'leaders/elders' do not renegade on their promise to pressure the Americans out after the 'elections', which the Americans will try to wiggle out of, and confirm that determination by joining the Resistance, then the occupiers will leave much sooner than later.
 

Nebuchadnezzar's Palace
In 1982, Saddam's workers began reconstructing Babylon's most imposing building, the 600-room palace of King Nebuchadnezzar II. Archaeologists were horrified. Many said that to rebuild on top of ancient artifacts does not preserve history, but disfigures it. The original bricks, which rise two or three feet from the ground, bear ancient inscriptions praising Nebuchadnezzar. Above these, Saddam Hussein's workers laid more than 60-million sand-colored bricks inscribed with the words, "In the era of Saddam Hussein, protector of Iraq, who rebuilt civilization and rebuilt Babylon." The new bricks began to crack after only ten years.

BabylonBut you knew that, didn't you?
 

Regarding this comment:
"Isn't that bust on the playing card supposed to be the Emperor Sargon of Akkad, not a Babylonian or Sumerian?"
It is Sumerian: "With the ascent to power of Sargon of Akkad, Sumerian art reached new heights of expression, particularly in sculpture. The greatest known examples reflecting that splendor include a bronze head thought to be a portrait of Sargon himself (from Nineveh, c.2300 B.C.; Iraq Mus., Baghdad), from which the gemstone eyes have been stolen". See:
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/ent/A0861356.html

Thank you, for the correction.
The card came as such, referring to it as Babylonian. It is all part of Mesopatamian history of modern day Iraq.
 

Hey! Here is the wort war crime in Itaq. It's running in Harvard Magazine
Here's the link...................http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010538.html
 

My father was an iraqian sculptor, he died just after the american invasion of Iraq (due to the conditions of life : high temperatures, no electricity....). Before his death he had time to see how the US invasion forces took care of the museums, of all the patrimony of Iraq that is part of the human patrimony.

How can you imagine a society that has no more than a few centuries of history (and is acustomed to buy all) can take care of such an historical patrimony.

Long life to iraqi resistance. Remember that no one state can win a war against a all people

A french-iraqi citizen
 

Having just made a blog of my own (I'm sure Virginia Woolf had this in mind), I was searching some other blogs via the "Just Updated" section, and happened to click on "Baghdad Burning". Since that young girl in your venerable city doesn't allow comments on her blog (no doubt, she's been inundated with them before), I am happy to see you do, Mr. Khadduri.

I wouldn't be here if my interest hadn't been piqued enough to read it. But having once done so, I can't help but to leave it almost immediately.

For too long, I have heard countless disparaging opinions about "people who voted for Bush" to know they come from people who neither want to nor care to know said people. They regurgitate the same pat statements about intelligence, actually lack thereof in their not-so-humble opinions, and other trite statements. Sure, the other side have a fair amount of people who do too, but they don't come bearing the torch of enlightenment like those who protest do.

This isn't going to solve anything. It's the same pudding dressed up as trifle. The taste is just as deadening.

Look, I'm terribly sorry that your country is in a right pickle at the moment. I'm sure there are many people who wish to change it. But to call Iraqis "patriotic and nationalistic" is surely a misnomer. Where were Iraqis for 30 years and more, when Mr. Hussein was perpetuating the most odious crimes this side of Auschwitz and Pol Pot? Where was the half-stifled cry of outrage by your people then? Did you not want to go to the streets and shout to the rooftops your anger and disillisionment? Of course you did. So why didn't you? You were afraid. You're not afraid now, are you?

Yes, it's not easy to revolt. But if you think my own people (the British) and Americans would've stood for one second's worth of the true barbarity of a madman (not the perceived fumblings of a simplistic elected president), you are sadly mistaken. One thing is to commit atrocities on foreigners -- as inconceivable as that is to most people. But yet another is to tolerate your leadership to do that on your own.

When I figure out why certain countries tolerate this, and others do not, I'll try to followup my post with constructive news. And possibly publish a book or two on the topic.

Cheers,
Victoria
 

Victoria said, Look, I'm terribly sorry that your country is in a right pickle at the moment. I'm sure there are many people who wish to change it. But to call Iraqis "patriotic and nationalistic" is surely a misnomer. Where were Iraqis for 30 years and more, when Mr. Hussein was perpetuating the most odious crimes this side of Auschwitz and Pol Pot? Where was the half-stifled cry of outrage by your people then? Did you not want to go to the streets and shout to the rooftops your anger and disillisionment? Of course you did. So why didn't you? You were afraid. You're not afraid now, are you?

Yes, it's not easy to revolt. But if you think my own people (the British) and Americans would've stood for one second's worth of the true barbarity of a madman (not the perceived fumblings of a simplistic elected president), you are sadly mistaken. One thing is to commit atrocities on foreigners -- as inconceivable as that is to most people. But yet another is to tolerate your leadership to do that on your own.

When I figure out why certain countries tolerate this, and others do not, I'll try to followup my post with constructive news. And possibly publish a book or two on the topic.Victoria, you write like a pompous, callous, ignorant fifth-former. Please spend at least a year, preferably two, studying the recent political and economic history of Iraq and the surrounding region. The Iraqi people did not tolerate Saddam's atrocities. Do you know anything about what happened when, with the promise of support from America, the marsh arabs in the south rose up against Saddam? Of course, you don't: the American help did not materialise, Saddam killed thousands and drained the marshes (thus destroying a way of life that had been there for eons). If, say, with Bush's military back-up, Blair decided to kill or imprison the entire population of Oxford, very very few people would be brave enough to protest. That's the sort of thing Saddam did - one word in Saddam's hearing (or that of his sons) by one person could and sometimes did result in entire villages being tortured and imprisoned for their entire lives - and he had a great deal of financial support from Western governments. I could give dozens and dozens of other examples. Where were you when, after the Gulf War, prisoners were discovered in underground pits who had been there for years, sometimes fed and sometimes not. God, you are ignorant.
Rachel, a Brit in London
 

What ever you do make sure you DON'T mention this!!

Wouldn't want to skew the propaganda...........

US, Polish troops ‘saved Babylon from looting’

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2005/January/focusoniraq_January118.xml§ion=focusoniraq



Szmajdzinski, challenging the museum expert, said that ”Any report on Babylon should start by saying that the Americans and the Poles saved Babylon for our civilisation, because that is the truth.”

“If it wasn’t for the Americans, Babylon would have been looted like all other museums in Iraq ... and we would now be buying back Babylon artifacts on bazaars and markets,” Szmajdzinski told public radio Jedynka in an interview.
 

Rachel, the problem with this topic is that almost immediately, the people who feel themselves to be the standard-bearers of truth, fall over themselves in personal attacks.

It feels rather as if you are condemned from the start, and find little stomach to continue the conversation.

I won't comment on your suppositions about my knowledge of Iraqi revolts or not. Nor will I comment on the vitriolic outburst around it.

Please continue your harangues in the spirit of free speech, because the true free speech of personal opinions which the internet represents, is often sadly lacking in blogs. But then blogs seem to be places where you can be yourself, and having people argue with you there, is perhaps not the intended purpose.

Either way, carry on nurse.

Cheers,
Victoria
 

Victoria, I don't care how insolent towards me you are. However, I will not stand silently by while you ridicule and belittle the suffering of the Iraqi people (both now and for the past 30 years). Your first post was completely asinine.

Your own blog suggests that you are not yet out of your teens, and teenagers around the world think they already know everything. But it is not too early for you to learn compassion and humility, to start listening more and pronouncing less upon subjects about which you know zilch, to be less of an arrogant spoilt brat.

the people who feel themselves to be the standard-bearers of truth, fall over themselves in personal attacks.Are you referring to me - I attacked the manner of your post and your choice of words. Nothing personal about that. And I don't feel myself to be any sort of standard-bearer of truth: I draw on my own experience and life - I am in my 50s, I have lived for years in Arab countries or countries where the Arab culture was visible on every side, I have been reading the Iraqi blogs for 18 months, filling in the gaps in my knowledge of the history and the region. I suppose that you were aged about 6 during the Gulf War?

It feels rather as if you are condemned from the start, and find little stomach to continue the conversation.Wrong.

I won't comment on your suppositions about my knowledge of Iraqi revolts or not. Nor will I comment on the vitriolic outburst around it.

Please continue your harangues in the spirit of free speech, because the true free speech of personal opinions which the internet represents, is often sadly lacking in blogs.Is that all you can do - try to patronise me?
Rachel, a Brit in London