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ISIS Overruns Palmyra
Brindisi is visibly part of the world the Romans built. You walk outside and stumble over the terminal columns of the Appian way. They’re not a big deal. They’ve always been here, the way the Adriatic has always been here. They survived the Goths, the Saracines, the Longobards, the Normans, the Swabians. They were here when the Austrians ran the city. They were here when the Bourbons ran it. They made it through catastrophic earthquakes in 1456 and 1743. The city was bombed massively during the First and the Second World Wars. The columns are still here.
There’s a monument to Mussolini in Brindisi. It’s ridiculous, of course. You see it and laugh at it. No one looks at what the Romans left and laughs. In the story of human history, Mussolini meant nothing compared to them.
There’s a child in this apartment who takes all of it for granted. All this stuff is here because the Romans were here. They built everything, and after that, there were other people.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, ISIS has taken Palmyra. We know what they will do.
Published in General
ISIS delenda est.
Too bad we have a petulant child for a president. Too bad for history.
An unmitigated disaster for all humanity.
This is an honest question. What is the ISIS rationale for destroying these historic sites? Clearly, whatever the ‘logic’ behind the destruction, its abominable. But what is it? The artifacts were there in the time of The Prophet and he didn’t see fit to eradicate them. So why now?
I’d understand if they were pillaging these areas for artifacts they could sell in the black market for antiquities. I wouldn’t agree … But I’d at least understand the motivation. The funding they’d get by selling them would be considerable. But the wanton destruction … I don’t get it. How do they see that its a benefit to them?
I can’t believe we are watching ISIS take Iraq before our own eyes. What a disgraceful moment for this country.
It’s an act of total genocide. If you destroy the past, no one can ever see evidence of it, know about it, or return to it. No going back.
This is in Syria, or what we’re still calling Syria. Here’s where it is in relation to Damascus, so you can visualize the distances. If you go West overland through Lebanon and cross the Mediterranean, sailing northwest and around what’s now Greece, you get to Brindisi.
It’s surreal to be writing about this.
That “evidence” is proof of a more superior people and culture. It’s easier to destroy it than to compete with it. They don’t like being reminded of Their inferiority.
It seems for a long time a difficulty has been that we haven’t been fighting a nation state or a standing army that takes territory. Well this may not be a “nation” per se but ISIS is definitely taking territory. Whether we want to do it or not it looks like fighting this war is much more up our military’s alley than fighting insurgents somewhere.
So history begins and ends with the Prophet? (with the exception of a brief moment for the invention of the Kalashnikov)
It begins and ends with them. They destroy Islamic shrines and monuments, too.
We saw the slaughter of over 200,000 innocents in Syria and did nothing. As we speak, there are millions of Syrian refugees, hundreds of thousands of children like yours and mine. It is unfortunate that Palmyra is now at the mercy of these barbarians, but, compared to the human suffering, I won’t lose sleep over it.
And let’s be honest: 99.9% of Americans had never heard of Palmyra until last night.
Wow. Going to take some time to get my head aroind that idea, Claire. The hubris is staggering.
Chopping heads left and right, burning people, bulldozing through ancient cities and our peace prize president does nothing. I still can’t believe how cold and awful human being Obama is.
Quite a few Palmryas in the United States. Our turn is coming.
But what to do? What to do?
Write a strongly-worded manifesto after this morning’s two-minute hate directed at Pam Geller for blaspheming The Prophet (PBUH)?
Sit on the ground and throw ashes over our heads?
Separate our recyclables?
I’m not sure I’m getting this: Is the logic that because we’ve done nothing about the slaughter of 200,000 innocents, we should no longer lose sleep?
People might not have heard of it. It doesn’t mean it isn’t part of the story of human history and civilization. It means they haven’t yet heard of it. What they’re destroying is anyone’s ability to see or know about this, forever. This isn’t a game in which you say, “What’s worth more, a baby or a building”–the destruction of people and civilizations are both mad and genocidal acts, and they’re interlinked. They’re willing to do this, they are doing it, and they’re spreading rapidly. Surely the fact that hundreds of thousands of innocents have already died shouldn’t make anyone feel more comfortable about this?
Think cultural revolution. Anger, ignorance and being drunk with power.
Yes. Like Year Zero in Cambodia.
Re: Year Zero in Cambodia
There’s a lovely thought … All the worst parts of the Khmer Rouge, but with global aspirations.
My point is that on the 0 to 10 scale of outrage, this should score a 3 and the mass killing should score a 10. BTW, there is a reason why these antique ruins are ruins. It isn’t just the passage of time. They were overrun by barbarians many times before, looted, destroyed etc.
Yes, I could easily make this argument. If we are so desensitized that we have done nothing about the slaughter, then we should lose sleep about little that goes on outside our own cities.
This could have been avoided if we conservatives would just be honest and recognize the threat of climate change.
There’s no reason they can’t both score 10.
Aaaarrrrrgh!
The Majority of voters in the 2008 and 2012 elections will deny that they had voted for this outcome. I imagine that they will claim their vote for Obama was in pursuit of a different goal. (Gay marriage, climate change, leveling-out individual’s economic achievements, the self gratification of voting for a black man, etc.)
But it was not like this outcome wasn’t foreseeable. Mitt correctly pointed out the logical consequences of Obama’s policies. They elected Obama anyway.
It’s not fair to blame Obama; it’s not his fault he’s president. Put another way, democracies tend to get what they deserve because they voted for it. The majority of American voters voted for the candidate who promised to simply leave Iraq and Afghanistan and afterward the Middle East goes up in flames. Just as Mitt warned them it would.
Politicians are loath to publicly shift the responsibility for such foreseeable disasters onto the voters who voted said disaster into being. Telling folks they voted stupidly does not attract votes. Consequently such truth-telling must fall to players who aren’t running for office.
Perhaps some PAC can issue something akin to one of those “This is your Brain On Drugs” Public Services Announcements. Say, This is the Middle East after you vote for a isolationist/Leftist foreign policy, followed by ISIS videos of mass beheadings, a nuclearizing Iran, an emerging caliphate, etc. Any questions?
The only issue I take with this is a capable president, hell a serious person, makes adjustments to their strategies based on actual results. Obama deserves plenty of blame for ignoring the entire world going up in flames following his “lead from behind” strategy. It’s not surprising though because liberals use the same rationale with their social policies. The policy is never judged incorrect, only the commitment (money) to that policy.
[deleted. for some reason an edit created a double post]
Just a reflection …
Remember the first Batman reinvention, with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson? There was a scene where the Joker and his thugs invaded an art gallery and defaced and destroyed all of the artwork. That scene effectively portrayed the Joker as psychotic and anti-social, and it was something about destroying the art that communicated that. When I first saw the movie, I was surprisingly disturbed by that scene. For some reason, defacing the art seemed to be the ultimate F-you.
A civilization’s art and history is a testimony of who we are. To deface it and destroy it is the ultimate insult to who we are.
And that’s, I suppose, why ISIS is doing it.
Additional thought I should have added to #25:
The injustice is that it not those who elected Obama who pay the full price of Obama winning his election, it is innocent people unfortunate enough to live where Obama’s policies take their toll.
So Obama, in his address to the Coast Guard Academy, blamed the Syrian Civil War on
Global WarmingClimate Change.So as we descend into a debate on which is worse- the murder of human beings or the senseless destruction of antiquities (I am against both)- our leader is working hard to put an end to these atrocities.
By controlling the weather.
Get this, we could prevent these terrible things from happening if we just give up a bit of our freedom so that the government could have more control over the weather.
And this is the word that comes straight from the top,
We’re toast.
Well, if you cannot or will not defend American interest against real-world threats then at least you can occupy yourself with protecting American against imaginary threats.