Mesopotamian Mess

As if we needed additional proof that war has no morality beyond self-justified destruction of everything in its path, I recently learned that part of the archaeological site of the ancient city of Babylon was commandeered to build a fuel supply depot for American military helicopters.

According to a report commissioned by the British Museum, U.S. troops built embankments, dug ditches and spread gravel to hold the fuel reservoirs needed to supply the helicopters. Fragments of 8000 year-old bricks engraved with cuneiform characters lie mixed with the rubble and sandbags left by the US military. 6th Century BC brick roadways, gates and monuments have been shattered.

Not only have irreplaceable ruins at a site that is one of the cradles of world civilization been permanently damaged by unregulated construction, vandalism, earth removal and filling with imported gravel; but the site has also been contaminated by spilled fuel seeping into the archaeological ruins.

We have destroyed an 8000 year-old archaelogical site to help carry out an illegal, imperialistic, unprovoked war in Iraq.

Does it matter to anyone?