Struggle to save Iraq's cultural heritage - 26 Apr 08

[ey1990e]

man i feel it for the iraqi's

there children will see less and less of there ancestors tresures and gifts

sigh... this reminds me of the ottoman sacking of greek culture

or the romans and the vandals

or the mongolian hoards burning and destroying bagdad and Alamut books

or the aztec, myans ect, ect

my god when will it end these things are more valuable than mear gold or money these things show us what we have achieved and inspire us to do better

sigh... the world get's worse and worse

[7717tzm]

these american and british soldiers causes destruction.they are absolutely disastor & crimemakers.they cause these historical artifacts to stolen.Disgrace and uncivilised babarian people.

[MentalHenryKissinger]

fuck these invader bastards

[MentalHenryKissinger]

Reporter is a white bastards. Covered up stuffs..Invaders fucked Iraq which is the reality

[7514328]

Those artifacts are in the Vaticans vault.

[hyepower89]

damn that sucks

[Inkan1969]

People, anyone stupid enough to both write, "tell me anything of cultural value that any Muslim brought to the world", and write that in caps is too stupid to merit a reply. Simple as that. So don't feed this troll.

[Inkan1969]

If U.S. troops HAD intervened against any of the lootings, a lot of civilians might've gotten hurt. Protecting these sites would've produced a lot of images of U.S. troops using physical force against civilians. The troops would've then be slammed for terrorizing civilians; Paolo would've done another of his garbage "disgusting" rants instead, had the troops tried to stop the looters.

[Inkan1969]

Dan Cruickshank once did a TV special where he visited the Museum after the fall. He actually exhonorated U.S. troops of blame. The evidence of many disappearances tended to point to corrupt museum officials instead.

[Inkan1969]

Yes, Cruickshank has a Guardian article called "What really happened at the Baghdad Museum", dated 6/19/2003.

[Inkan1969]

The article mentions U.S. troops in only one sentence. No substance at all: what were their standing orders, what was the situation? The looting cannot be correctly represented with so little information.

[Inkan1969]

Starcatcher, if you have nothing to add other than ugly hate rhetoric, please go away...

[flyingbird0214]

Actually, the British Crown has had an uninterrupted rule of 359 years, the Americans elected their first president 219 years ago, however government is not culture, just part of it. Culture is about letters, thought, ideas, beliefs, and many other things the Americans got mostly from Europe. America is a young country and has had no much time to create their own culture. Ignorance and hate of knowledge seems to be pretty ingrained into their culture.

[flyingbird0214]

Did you know that Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, is one of the birth places of civilization? They didn't invent camel piss shampoo, but the first written legal system. If you mean by baby rape, the American soldiers raping a girl in Iraq, which you can read even in American news, then I guess you have a point.

[tma1982]

I don't blame you, you live in a bubble, I'm assuming you never left your country to experience another culture. I suggest you do so, have an open mind my friend.

[kingkush]

You still don't get it pig rapist. You have no link Christianity. The only way you are linked to Christianity is through European paganism that was spread around as Christianity. The fact is, you fall flat on your face because you have no culture, history, heritage, or civilization. You are just a burden on society and pig fucker. Look up Abrahamic religion on an encyclopedia. The harder they come, the harder they fall.

[kingkush]

Fuck you pig rapist. If you know anything about the Abrahamic religions, you would know that they all originated from the Mid East and that they use Semitic languages (such as Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, etc.). Do you speak any other language besides English? No, your too dumb to. Your probably descendant from criminals in Britain. This is birthplace of civilization. The origin of human civilization. What are you? Some pig fucker that lives in shack.

[kingkush]

My God. So sad. It brings tears to my eyes, these priceless items will probably be lost forever. This cultural genocide is 100% sponsored by the U.S. fascist gov.

[Khadijah4peace]

What kind of person destroys babylon? Sorry it's the history of the world how can you destroy it. I hope all goes well with the restoration of the Culture of Iraq.

[Chivalryaintdead]

You can't blame looting on the invasion.

Stealing is an individual choice, the population chose to destroy their own cultural heritage for a few coins. They could have chosen not to loot, and accepted the responsibility of protecting rather then destroying.

[kingkush]

Why not? It is a direct result of the invasion of a sovereign nation on false accusations. Remove the police in USA for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Saddam was a bad guy, but at least there was stability and some sort of infrastructure and law enforcement. Now it is total chaos. You should watch Cheney's video from 1994 saying it would be a quagmire to invade Iraq. Strange that he changed his mind to the opposite in the pursuit of personal wealth and lying to the American people.

[Chivalryaintdead]

You cannot blame a good thing for the evil things that people choose to do.

They don't HAVE to loot. It's not like you can even eat them, I would have sympathy if what they stole was at least edible.

[kingkush]

It is not about good or bad. Like I said, this happened during Katrina and if there is no law enforcement in USA, there would be nationwide looting and murdering. Your opinion holds no water.

[tma1982]

I'm glad they are restoring the art pieces, Cultural is very important

[fsoldaten]

Very sad and very uneccessary. I think few Westerners know how much we owe to the inhabitants of Mesopotamia for their scientific and artistic brilliance. Its just sad that what was once the cradle of civilization is now a cradle of violence and war. Let us hope that Iraqis can look to their history as a point of mutual respect and fraternity. And thanks Al-Jazeera for reporting on this!

[ADONAI888HASHEM]

The GODDESS says bring it ALL back in the name of ALLAH, YHVH,ADONAI,HASHEM,ETYHVH,YESH­UA  Roya Dayspring GOD Goes GLOBAL ! - You Tube

[TRINITYisLOVE]

Iraq has such a great heritage of history and culture. Since the first times of human civilization Mesopotamia has been a region of cultural development.

[PauloGVieira]

What a terribly tragic story - I hope to visit Iraq when this is all over and I can visit such museums.

As for the Americans who stood by and watched as these museums were looted - lets face it American soldiers would not know culture if it hit them in the face. A significant proportion of American soldiers serving in Iraq are actually convicted criminals who chose this path rather than gaol.

[MementoExpose]

haha, true!

[Tubbbers]

From my experience soldiers here are among the least cultured people in the country. It's kind of hard to appreciate humanity though when you've decided to be sent across the world to shoot people.

[flyingbird0214]

Americans can't appreciate what they, themselves, don't have, culture. A country with barely 400 years of history can't understand the importance of pieces that represent the birth of civilization, which disappeared from the New World after 1492.

[Inkan1969]

I think it's very uncultured of a person to make broad bigoted statements about other people without any real substance.  You can put that "significant proportion" back in your ass.

[PauloGVieira]

Without any real substance - go look up the Moral Waiver Study that your government introduced after the Iraq War! Congress this year has even asked the Pentagon for an explanation into the sharp increase.

What a shame you know so little about what is really going on in your country.

[Inkan1969]

You still have not quoted an actual fraction. And you are referring to a recent policy, not anything that dates to the 2003 attack.

[PauloGVieira]

You are still writing.....look it up, the enquiry from Congress took place only last year.

Idiot.

[Inkan1969]

You look it up and present it. I'm not doing your homework.

[PauloGVieira]

For f*cks sake it is your country - you prove that it is not the cultural blackhole that everyone knows it to be!

Donut anyone?

[Inkan1969]

I don't need to prove anything to you. You're the one making the ugly claims. You don't seem any different from Starcatcher778.

[PauloGVieira]

Then quit writing back to me - go back to Oprah!

You think you can espouse the odd liberal comment and think you are better than the rest of your fellow ignorant Americans - you are worse than the others. You are the type of American that talks freedom and democracy whilst siphoning off petrol from Iraq and paying for the killing of Palestinian children.

Sure a large part of this post is fueled by anger but f*cking deal with it - you are more hated than Osama for glaringly obvious reasons.

[Inkan1969]

What, you post here, and then get mad when people respond to you? You deal with your own anger.

[PauloGVieira]

Then dont f*cking respond by claiming you dont care what I think then keep on writing back to my remarks.

10 years from now the world is going to judge your silly country harsher than it already is today - we dont like you.

[Inkan1969]

I care, because of the destruction you are causing by spreading hate speech. You claim you are speaking out against injustices, but you offer bigoted stereotypes instead. When Starcatcher threw out his ugly Islam bashing, people had to counteract him. It's the same with you.

[PauloGVieira]

Dont play the victim with me - the USA is big enough to look after itself and I am merely addressing an imbalance in international relations. Karma works in wonderful ways - for decades you have been dishing out the sort of sh*t that you are now receiving.

If you dont like it change your f*cking ways and afford the people of Latin America and the Middle East the same rights you afford to Americans and Israelis.

[Inkan1969]

Spewing anti-American stereotypes is not addressing the imbalances. Your rants are your individual acts, not some "karma".

[PauloGVieira]

Individual acts? I think you will find millions upon millions of people that feel the same way.

You say my opinions are stereotypes but you are a democracy, you voted for your government and continue to pay for the bombs shipped to Israel and its illegal presence in Iraq.

You live in a f*cking democracy so take responsibility for the crimes being committed in your name and with your money! If you dont like it then change it!

[Inkan1969]

Who appointed you the spokesman of millions?

[PauloGVieira]

It must have been you because I made no such claims - as I said I am another voice amongst millions upon millions.

Now if you want to continue your personal diatribe write to me direct - our conversation does no justice to this topic on your country's raping and pillaging of Iraq's cultural history.

[tomanyasses]

probably was some jew stole your stuff in iraq

[tomanyasses]

your right why you pick on me

[tomanyasses]

not all americans think the same

[PauloGVieira]

Clearly....but you sound just as stupid as most of them.

[tomanyasses]

your still stupider than me and your kind is dumber

[PauloGVieira]

When I look at your democratically elected President I find your argument hard to fathom.

Commercial break on TV?

[tomanyasses]

what argument your confusing me with someone else

[Inkan1969]

And whatever policies you many object to, that's no excuse to embrace Bin Laden like you just did.

[PauloGVieira]

Embrace Bin Laden? Please, I despise him as much as I do the government you elected into power but you cannot deny your country is popularly unpopular throughout the world.

[Inkan1969]

Fair enough