Monday, September 17, 2007

SHAME IN IRAQ

"2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The near total destruction of Iraq's historic past – the very cradle of human civilisation – has emerged as one of the most shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation." (Independent, 17 September)
This touching article, displaying as it does a great concern for historical artefacts, is surely wide of the mark when it states "the most shameful symbols". What about the tens of thousands of deaths, injuries and misery suffered by the population? RD

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