Posted on 02/20/2005 9:36:38 PM PST by Peelod
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29614/story.htm
Careful Flooding May Restore Iraq Marshes
USA: February 21, 2005
WASHINGTON - Wetlands that once sheltered Marsh Arabs and a host of wildlife in southern Iraq are being partly restored and could offer a haven once again if it is done right, experts said on Saturday
Luckily, water coming into the area from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is unexpectedly clean, washing away toxic salts that built up when the area was drained under Saddam Hussein's regime, the international team of experts reported.
Bird species are starting to return, including pelicans, cormorants and wading species. The area was also important for spawning fish and shrimp and, with only 20 percent of the marshes restored, these animals have along way to go, the experts reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at planetark.com ...
I think I speak for everyone here when I say: Iraq has marshes???
Yes, don't you read National Geographic at the barber shop?
Marshes in Iraq are thought to be the Biblical Garden of Eden.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0501_030501_arabmarshes.html
"Today, there's not much to visit. In 1991, shortly after the first Persian Gulf war ended, Saddam Hussein's government, angered by Marsh Arab participation in the southern uprising against his rule, launched an assault on the southern wetlands and the nearly 300,000 Marsh Arabs, known as Ma'adan, who call the region home. The assault included burning villages, summary executions and "disappearances," and a multi-year, sophisticated campaign of water diversion and marsh drainage that has reduced roughly 93 percent of the marshes to dry, salt-encrusted wasteland."
Not only marshes but a small minority known as guess what, "Marsh Arabs," with their own unique subculture. Saddam dried up the swamps out of sheer nastiness after Desert storm, maybe the marhs Arabs were among the ZShi'ite insurgents--not sure about that. But he dammed up the rivers and dried up the swamps and more or less wiped out their way of life.
There's a pregnant thought.
Iraq marshes were in the news quite a bit during the war. Like another poster said, you need to look at National Geographic or some other science magazines more.
Well, as we all know, environmental catastrophes only happen in capitalist nations. (Sarcasm alert.)
I have a brother who is a radical environmentalist. I once really got his goat by saying "you know what was the most harmful thing man ever did to the environment in the new world?" He said something about cars our the Amazon, and then I pointed out that it was the Mayans cutting down pretty much an entire jungle. Man, he hated that answer.
Oh, wait, let me get back to the point of this thread. Fanatical societies tend to lay waste to the environment. That's how I'll connect the Mayans and Saddam Hussein. And the Soviet Union. And the Chinese.
This is the 2200-2300 year old crater that was found after Saddam drained the swamp. Click on the link above the article for some interesting discussion and speculation.
L
Oops. Make that a 2200-2300BC crater.
Yes, the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers run into each other somewhere in Iraq. There were marshes, with the ages-old marsh people culture. Saddam drained the marshes to get rid of them (they didn't like him.)
It was hilarious to listen to Col. David Hackworth in 2003 telling U.S. TV audiences that the marshes of Iraq would greatly slow down our military attacks into Iraq. The maroon didn't know that Saddam drained the marshes after the 1991 war.
http://www.iraqcrisisbulletin.com/archives/040303/html/iraqi_marshes.html
The war in Iraq is taking place around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, what archaeologists call the cradle of Western civilization. The historic rivers flow into the Mesopotamian marshes, which Biblical scholars believe inspired the Garden of Eden. But in the last decade, those marshes have all but disappeared. The United Nations says the loss of the marshes is a catastrophe on the order of the deforestation of the Amazon rainforests, or the drying of the Aral Sea. The UN Environmental Program this week said restoring those marshes should be a part of postwar reconstruction.
As a young boy, civil engineer Azzam Alwash remembers paddling through narrow channels between the reeds in the Mesopotamian marshes. He says reeds six meters high lined the winding waterways:
"You're passing through these waterways surrounded by reeds. And you're pushing yourself through and then suddenly you go into an opening. And right in front of your opening you see a settlement of huts that are woven out of these reed beds. You see water buffalo frolicking in the water. You see kids sitting on the banks of these artificial islands fishing."
These settlements belong to the Marsh Arabs, a civilization that traces its roots back five thousand years. Archaeologists believe the Marsh Arabs are descended from the Sumerians, who built the world's first recorded civilization on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
It is hilarious to hear any of Hackworth's military predictions.
It is unquestionable that Hackworth was a brave grunt. However, being a brave grunt does not mean you know Sh*t from Shinola when it come to the military Big Picture.
The cover story for Newsweek magazine for the week of January 21, 1991 was “We Will Win, But…” by “America’s Most Decorated War Hero”.
Here are quotes from Hackworth’s January 21, 1991 Newsweek cover story article:
“Casualties won’t be 200 Americans dead a week, as in Vietnam. They will be more than 200 dead an hour in the first round.”
“The aircraft arranged in the Gulf are the wrong mix of aircraft”
“The Iraqis should give a good account of themselves in air attacks.”
“The Abrams M-1A1 tank is a fuel guzzler and a real liability in a road-less terrain”
“For the most part, from rifleman to battalion commander, these dedicated (American) soldiers and Marines have never seen war. And in my judgment they haven’t yet been made hard enough physically and mentally to survive the horror of potential combat with Iraq’s veteran Army.”
As it turned out, the Iraqi Army in the Gulf War was totally routed at a cost of 137 U.S. dead for the entire war.
The Iraqi Army also folded like a deck of cards in the Iraq War.
So, if you are lurking, Colonel Hackworth:
Sh*t
Shinola
My desire in starting this thread was to give credit to W as an environmentalist. When will we hear from Olbermann, Moore, Garafalo, Franken, et al. on this topic?
Sometimes the Hebrew dictionaries can help flesh out similar Semetic words.
04574 ma`adan {mah-ad-awn'} or (fem.) ma`adannah {mah-ad-an-naw'}
from 05727; TWOT - 1567d; n m
AV - delicately 2, dainties 1, delight 1; 4
1) dainty (food), delight
from 05727
05727 `adan {aw-dan'}
a primitive root; TWOT - 1567; v
AV - delighted themselves 1; 1
1) (Hithpael) to luxuriate, delight oneself
That's the same as...
05729 `Eden {eh'-den}
from 05727;; n pr loc
AV - Eden 3; 3
Eden = "pleasure"
1) a place conquered by Assyria; probably located in the northwest of
Mesopotamia
***
The letter mem is often prefixed to a root to form a word that is, in a sense, "out of" or "from" the root.
Example: migdal (tower) from gadal (magnify, grow, be great)
Thus, the ma`adan could simply be the people "from" a place called Eden.
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