Can the world simply standy by and watch all this? Apparently, yes... did it before with Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan and persecution of Buddhists there by the Taliban.
The reaction is Islamic states and by Muslims generally is not very forceful or very encouraging...it is like the way other European states let Nazi Germany grow ever bolder and more barbaric until finally appeasement was no longer an option.
I am also rather tired of this crap about the ISIS recruits being such "nice boys" who have been driven to all these atrocities by Islamaphobia in non-Muslim countries. This is a lie or at best a wicked distortion and the mantle of shame must be placed heavily on people like Professor Noam Chomsky, who has been instigating this kind of thing for years. ( In the case of Chomsky, this should have come as no surprise-- look how he dismissed the Camodian Holocaust as an invention of the CIA and American Imperialism.
He has many nudnik admirers among American academic types ( who also are often anti-American apologists for Putin, you know -- I remember getting into a kind of debate on Facebook about a year ago with this sententious woman who , all full of herself, also painted a picture of herself as " a simple teacher of literature"-- Good Lord, the drivel this woman must be preaching to these young college lads and lassies. )
But academic folly knows no bounds, as we have seen in the outlandish demonization of the NYPD by academics in NYC ( one of whom was arrested for preaching violence against the police and stopped at the last minute from throwing down iron hammers on them from a bridge. This idot was fired ( a rare event)-- meaning there is SOME common sense and decency left in the people who have power in NYC
We also have to confront other apologists for such horrors in the "intellectual communities" of both the West and Islamic countries...and hold them responsible for aiding and abetting the horrors we are witnessing now and will go on seeing until such time as ISIS can be stopped militarily....
And I must say, the United States has sacrificed enough "Blood and Treasure" in this as it is..we have thousands of veterans who have been denied treatment for the physical and psychic wounds they have suffered.
And no more letting all these G W Bush era people off the hook for their role in this either
Well, that is my rant for the evening..had to get this off my chest
MIDDLE EAST
ISIS bulldozes ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq
AFP, Baghdad
Thursday, 5 March 2015
Thursday, 5 March 2015
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq on Thursday, the government said, in the jihadists' latest attack on the country's historical heritage.
ISIS "assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles," the tourism and antiquities ministry said on an official Facebook page.
An Iraqi antiquities official confirmed the news, saying the destruction began after noon prayers on Thursday and that trucks that may have been used to haul away artefacts had also been spotted at the site.
"Until now, we do not know to what extent it was destroyed," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century BC, lies on the Tigris around 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of Mosul, Iraq's second city and the main hub of IS in the country.
The destruction at Nimrud, one of the jewels of the Assyrian era, came a week after the jihadist group released a video showing militants armed with sledgehammersand jackhammers smashing priceless ancient artefacts at the Mosul museum.
That attack sparked widespread consternation and alarm, with some archaeologists and heritage experts comparing it to the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
In the jihadists' extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines are a corruption of the purity of the early Muslim faith and amount to recognising other objects of worship than God.
The group spearheaded a sweeping offensive last June that overran Nineveh province, where Mosul and Nimrud are located, and swept through much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland.
Iraqi security forces and allied fighters are battling to regain ground from the jihadists with backing from an international anti-ISIS coalition as well as neighbouring Iran.
But major operations to drive ISIS out of Nineveh are likely months away, leaving the province's irreplaceable historical sites at the mercy of militants who have no regard for Iraq's past.
ISIS "assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles," the tourism and antiquities ministry said on an official Facebook page.
An Iraqi antiquities official confirmed the news, saying the destruction began after noon prayers on Thursday and that trucks that may have been used to haul away artefacts had also been spotted at the site.
"Until now, we do not know to what extent it was destroyed," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century BC, lies on the Tigris around 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of Mosul, Iraq's second city and the main hub of IS in the country.
The destruction at Nimrud, one of the jewels of the Assyrian era, came a week after the jihadist group released a video showing militants armed with sledgehammersand jackhammers smashing priceless ancient artefacts at the Mosul museum.
That attack sparked widespread consternation and alarm, with some archaeologists and heritage experts comparing it to the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
In the jihadists' extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines are a corruption of the purity of the early Muslim faith and amount to recognising other objects of worship than God.
The group spearheaded a sweeping offensive last June that overran Nineveh province, where Mosul and Nimrud are located, and swept through much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland.
Iraqi security forces and allied fighters are battling to regain ground from the jihadists with backing from an international anti-ISIS coalition as well as neighbouring Iran.
But major operations to drive ISIS out of Nineveh are likely months away, leaving the province's irreplaceable historical sites at the mercy of militants who have no regard for Iraq's past.
Last Update: Friday, 6 March 2015 KSA 00:52 - GMT 21:52
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