[Right Wing Professor]

However, the other point that these are parts of someone elses heritage is also true. When the Taliban brought down the Bamiyan buddhas, they were destroying their own sense of self, destroying their own culture, in the same fashion that the British under Cromwell destroyed the original Crown jewels that were centuries old.

Why? Because they happened to inhabit the same geographic location, two millenia apart? There is no ethnic or cultural connection between the mish-mash of Persian, Turkish and Arab tribes of modern Afghanistan, and the mixed Hellenic/Indian Gandharan culture that made the Buddhas. Why does geography trump everything?

[Cronos]

That's not true. Ancient Sogdiana (which consisted of a large part of present day Afghanistan and whose princess married Alexander) was converted into a satrapy by the Persians. The Greeks never stayed there long enough to start a Hellenistic society there. The society was influenced by Hellenistic thought but the people were Sogidans, Persians, Pusthuns, Baluchis, etc. The Tajiks are an Irani people, while the Pashtuns were there earlier, being a more indic race. The Hazaras are remnants of Genghis Khans army and the Uzbeks are Turkic tribes. They ARE the descendants of those who built the Bamiyan buddhas, with other bloodlines coming in. By the same token, the Italians have no claim over the treasures of Rome, the British over Stonehenge or any other Britonnic artifact.

It's not just geography, it's the country's history, it's past.