Protecting Iraq's Ancient Treasures: Pentagon has "No Strike" List

SF Chronicle ^ | 31-03-03 | David Perlman

[u-89]

Answering the pleas of archaeologists and scholars worldwide, the Pentagon has ordered ground troops and aircraft to spare Iraq's treasured archaeological sites wherever possible.

This is the fabled Mesopotamia of antiquity, the "cradle of civilization" where the first agrarian societies around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers invented writing, the wheel, the first laws, and literature and mathematics -- some more than 6,000 years ago.

[u-89]

Glad the boys at the Pentagon aren't the same people who flippantly speak of nuking the region.

[TADSLOS]

Anyone want to guess where some of the WMD is stored?

[sarasota]

Now we know where to find the bastards.

[Constitution Day]

Ping

[DannyTN]

I agree we should avoid destroying these places if we can. But that doesn't mean we don't capture them and search them thoroughly.

[johniegrad]

Contrast this with the Taliban's destruction of ancient treasures in Afghanistan.

[jwalburg]

There isn't a hill anywhere in Iraq where a tank couldn't roll over and crush some really important buried site that we've never had a chance to explore," said McGuire Gibson of the University of Chicago, who is widely known as the leading American archaeologist working in Iraq.

Oh, well, let's just go home then.

[Steely Tom]

It's a "no strike" list for now.

(steely)

[mtbopfuyn]

There isn't a hill anywhere in Iraq where a tank couldn't roll over and crush some really important buried site that we've never had a chance to explore

Don't worry, we're only fluffing up the sand to make your digging easier.

Was there an outcry when SH dug up those sites for his bunkers?

[k2blader]

If Saddam could read this now, he'd giggle.

[45Auto]

"...most of it not yet excavated, experts said.",

This is rapidly changing. The whole damn country should be completely excavated shortly.

[blam]

Got it, thanks.

Archaeologists 5,000 years from now:

"There appears to have been an ancient civilization here at one time, however, our excavations have been hampered by melted sand covering the site."

[Constitution Day]

Oh my goodness!
Are you one of those "people who flippantly speak of nuking the region"? :)

[u-89]

Contrast this with the Taliban's destruction of ancient treasures in Afghanistan.

Yeah, there is a world of difference between western outlook and certain "others". During WWII there were some generals on both sides that took great pains to avoid destruction in Italy. It was not universal but there were those who remembered they were fighting in a museum. Then of course there was the German general who refused Hitler's order to destroy Paris.

[Billthedrill]

Nineveh was actually the Assyrian capitol for only about a hundred years, but it has been settled since antiquity. The problem is its proximity to Mosul and the oil there. Glad to see that somebody is taking this stuff into account, and it is priceless...but more priceless still is the life of a single coalition soldier.

[tessalu]

NO treasure that Iraq has is worth the life of one American soldier, so keep that in mind. Either we mean business in this war, or we don't. Strive for victory!
Stop playing games. The bombing assults on Baghdad have been so small that they have hardly made the difference.
Surrond Baghdad, and cut it off completely, all communications, gasoline, electricity, communications, and after that they will surrender. There is no need for quick house to house fighting that Saddam has hoped for.

[ravingnutter]

Glad the boys at the Pentagon aren't the same people who flippantly speak of nuking the region.

I am not of the nuke 'em for the hell of it mentality, but if they unleash chem/bio weapons on our guys, all I gotta say is...those artifacts would look real nice in a huge glass case.

[APBaer]

"Contrast this with the Taliban's destruction of ancient treasures in Afghanistan."

You know, that appears to me to have been one of the dumbest moves of all time.

Prior to the blowing up of the statues at Bamiyan the Taliban were known as, well, just your normal religious nuts. After that, it really got the world's attention that these were some *really* crazy MOFs.

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG homepage, not sending a general distribution.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.