It boggles the mind as to why would any person or group would destroy historical buildings and sites. It seems to be the hallmark of all terrorist organizations. We had to witness the Taliban destroy the historical and ancient statues in Bamiyaan. Now we see DAESH blowing up historical ancient temples and shrines. Just two days ago, they blew up the ancient temple of Ball Shamin in the UNESCO-listed ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. It has become a pattern and this was the latest in the series of cultural relics destroyed by this terrorist group.
DAESH has been destroying an entire priceless heritage in a systematic manner in parts of Syria and Iraq. Society has created museums and put so much effort into protecting and preserving historic wonders for future generations, groups like DAESH are on a mission to destroy mankind’s history by destroying these evidences of human life. The saddest part is that these barbarians beheaded an Eighty-year-old scholar of antiquities in Palmyra and hung his body on a column in a historic site. Khalid Asaad who had worked for over 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra was murdered by DAESH last week.
It is very important for the world to recognize these barbarians who not only rape and kill little girls; they behead old people, and are out to erase any history that will tell our future generations as to who we were and where we have come to. We should all make efforts to show the true face of DAESH to everyone so they can no longer recruit impressionable people into their heinous ideology.
Don't worry, republicans have strong chance to win the next elections and ground for new war against DAESH is being prepared... so once republican president is in white house... US army would be everywhere...
@CENTCOM, I know you have to relay that message on behalf of US, and none here would disagree with the way you paint ISIS.
But don't you think, while they were trying to build museums, protecting heritage etc, they should have also spent time and money on the youth, give them proper education and raise them to take care of such heritage? Instead all the powers in the west have misused international agencies like UNESCO, UNICEF, IMF etc, to further their agenda and propagate a view they held, even though those views were not only opposite to the reality on the ground, but in fact, were counter-productive. Even as we unequivocally condemn the atrocities committed by ISIS, in capitals around the world, we are only talking about how best to 'control' and 'wield' this situation to protect our interests. And when news like this comes out of Iraq/Syria, all we do is extract the propaganda value out it, rather than actually doing something about it.
The only way to stop them is for an actual Military force to put actual boots on the ground to fight them head on. These drone strikes arent cutting it.
These are the times when we need to fight... Not in 2003, but now ! DAESH is the evil that needs countering not Saddam. The US made a horrible
mistake with this whole Iraq invasion debacle. Short sighted polices laced with hubris and cynicism created this mess.
Like I've said before, usually when one tribe/country/empire invades an area, they stay and rule the population with an occupation. The area gets integrated into the invading empire and becomes annexed, and this is how empires grow.
I think this is the first time in history that a country/empire, etc has invaded a sovereign area, and then....left.
When you destroy infrastructure and leave, it leaves a vacuum. Very easy for people to re-group and then fight back as you turn your heels and leave. They will also conquer the local population and sometimes not for the best intentions.
As much as the American vote was sweeping in getting soldiers out of Iraq and ending the Iraq war, what really should have happened is that Iraq should not have been invaded in the first place. But once invaded, we should have stayed there. And yes, that would have meant being bogged down in a long fight and more deaths of American soldiers. But this is the result of not staying in the area, and keeping it occupied and then building it.
It was done when Nagasaki/Hiroshima happened. America rebuilt Japan, and it's frikkin awesome now. I'm not sure why we thought leaving a war-torn area with annihilated infrastructure would not result in something like ISIS. I was talking about this possibility on this very forum in fact, that the power vacuum is going to be dangerous down the line.