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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis morning, one of the great treasures of the world is on the brink of annihilation
Jihadists from the Islamic State group seized control Saturday of the northern part of Syria's ancient desert city of Palmyra after fierce clashes with government forces, a monitoring group said.
"IS advanced and took control of most of northern Palmyra, and there are fierce clashes happening now," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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Most of Palmyra's renowned ruins, including colonnaded streets and elaborately decorated tombs, lie to the southwest of the city.
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He said IS "will blow everything up. They will destroy everything," if the enter the site, adding that many of Palmyra's artefacts, like elaborate tombs, could not be moved.
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http://news.yahoo.com/seizes-northern-part-syrias-palmyra-monitor-161405661.html
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However, much more documented destruction of historical sites and artifacts at the hands of ISIS has taken place in Iraq. These included the Assyrian cities of Nimrud and Khorsabad; the Parthian city of Hatra, and the Sunni prophet Jonah's tomb. This is also on top of destroying the Mosul museum and library, both home to numerous ancient artifacts.
So why is the group so bent on destroying historical artifacts?
British historian and novelist Tom Holland argues that ISIS desires to cleanse the region of any sign of its diverse religious past, and also simply to get a shock out of the world community.
"They depend on the sugar rush that comes from staging atrocities and they know that one way to get Western attention is to destroy ruins that have a particular place in the heart of the entire world," Holland told CNN. "This isn't just about Middle Eastern history, these are the wellsprings of the entire global culture. Mesopotamia, Iraq, Syria, this is the wellspring of global civilization. It really couldn't be higher stakes in terms of conservation."
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http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2015/0516/Will-ISIS-destroy-Palmyra-the-bride-of-the-desert-video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra
It's worth pointing out that had the U.S. not invaded Iraq, this would, in all likelihood, not be happening. When you destroy a pivotal, intact government, (no this is not a defense Saddam Hussein) you subvert the governments in that region and it all comes tumbling down.
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Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Via "Syrian Moderates" and our frequent large donations to their Saudi Arabian benefactors.
delrem
(9,688 posts)and the US leads the Friends of Syria (and Libya!) movement.
The PNAC war is going swimmingly, so well that there can be collective denial that it's even happening! Even on progressive forums.
No US "boots on the ground", you see? Except for the mercinaries, and CIA.
Recorded Voice: Good morning/afternoon/evening, Mr. Phelps.
Your mission Jim, should you choose/decide to accept it, ...
As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)The whole ancient cradle of Civilization is being destroyed, pillaged, and sent back to the stone age, not only by us, but other actors.
Eons from now, when the radiation resistant dregs of man find that area, they will wonder about the sand covered artifacts they find.
Chathamization
(1,638 posts)Since with our goldfish memory foreign policy, no one really cared what groups would take power if Assad was gone, or even what the situation would look like a few months later.
Of course now we're being told that trying to overthrow Assad would have been a good way to stop the people trying to overthrow Assad.
MH1
(17,600 posts)That backed him and the US into a corner that would be hard to maneuver out of.
Assad may be a colossal prick, as was Saddam, but that doesn't mean it was in the interests of the US - or - the local people for us to get involved in a local rebellion or toppling him ourselves.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)
n2doc
(47,953 posts)
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)match the destruction that the United States of America brought to the region.
"Stuff happens"
- Donald Rumsfeld
brooklynite
(94,503 posts)It was completely quiet when I visited 4 years ago (including Palmyra). The protests that led to the Government response that led to the Civil War was a result of the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt in late 2010, which also had nothing to do with the Iraq invasion.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)who gained their insurgency experience during the post invasion sectarian strife and were radicalized in coalition prison camps.
cali
(114,904 posts)have spoken to the region being destabilized by the Iraq invasion- and I couldn't have been much clearer that that is what I was referring to.
I suspect you're simply being deliberately obtuse merely to disagree with me. I think that's a tad silly.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change
By HENRY FOUNTAINMARCH 2, 2015
Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011.
The drought was the worst in the country in modern times, and in a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists laid the blame for it on a century-long trend toward warmer and drier conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean, rather than on natural climate variability.
The researchers said this trend matched computer simulations of how the region responds to increases in greenhouse-gas emissions, and appeared to be due to two factors: a weakening of winds that bring moisture-laden air from the Mediterranean and hotter temperatures that cause more evaporation.
y, said he and his colleagues found that while Syria and the rest of the region known as the Fertile Crescent were normally subject to periodic dry periods, “a drought this severe was two to three times more likely” because of the increasing aridity in the region.
Dr. Kelley, who did the research while at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and is now at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said there was no apparent natural cause for the warming and drying trend, which developed over the last 100 years, when humans’ effect on climate has been greatest.
