Heart-ache: U.S. attack would destroy Iranian antiquities
posted at 11:51 am on March 5, 2007 by Allahpundit
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Count on al-Guardian to have its priorities straight. This comes from page two of the media’s “Iran = Iraq” playbook, page one being the claims of doctored intelligence about those Iranian IEDs. Page three will be hand-wringing about the looting that would ensue if we hit Bushehr.
There are plenty of good reasons not to attack (yet); the threat to ceramics is not one of them.
In his quiet office at the British Museum, among the portraits of long-dead explorers and copies of 3,000-year-old inscriptions, one of the greatest experts on the archaeology of the Middle East has a series of maps of Iranian nuclear installations spread out across his desk.
John Curtis’s maps fill him with foreboding: because they show how many of Iran’s nuclear plants are perilously close to ancient cultural sites.
Natanz, home to a uranium enrichment plant, is renowned for its exquisite ceramics; Isfahan, home to a uranium conversion plant, is also a Unesco world heritage site and was regarded in the 16th century as the most beautiful city on earth.
Other nuclear installations lie close to Shiraz, dubbed “the city of roses and nightingales”, famous for the tombs of medieval poets; Persepolis, the great palace of King Darius, whose ruins are still magnificent; and the 6th century BC tomb of Cyrus the Great, the Persian ruler who was said to have been buried in a coffin of gold.
This is the same paper that recently reported at the end of an article about there being no hard evidence of an Iranian bomb program how a document disclosed to inspectors two years ago — apparently inadvertently — contained instructions for building hemispheres of enriched uranium, the only known use for which is in nuclear warheads. Just this morning, ElBaradei told the IAEA that he can’t be sure if they’re working on weapons or not.
Exit question: Are the odds that many of the main Iranian nuclear sites would be near places of historical significance better or worse, do you suppose, than the odds of Hezbollah rockets being based near Lebanese population centers?
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You can add to the exit question: Or Saddam storing munitions in school basements.
Of course, no blame placed on the Iranians for putting nuclear “power” plants near antiquity sites in the first place…
JetBoy on March 5, 2007 at 11:57 AM
The odds are metaphysical certainty.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on March 5, 2007 at 11:59 AM
The Taliban didn’t seem to mind about old cultural stuff when they blew up 1700 year old Buddhas.
I say we give the Iranian extremists the same courtesy.
-Wasteland Man.
WastelandMan on March 5, 2007 at 12:01 PM
Islam doesn’t care about cultural relics. Anything before the country became Islamic is the “time of darkness.”
PRCalDude on March 5, 2007 at 12:06 PM
Well then that is just one more thing for them to think about as they go on their merry way.
I think I would be more concerned with what will become of their “valuables”…like their life, family, friends, etc.
They could always build a camp of our college students, a “tent city of peace”. Around there facilities.
right2bright on March 5, 2007 at 12:15 PM
The always-reliable Guardian.
Exit question 3 – Can you imagine any circumstances or events that would result in support from the Guardian for military action, of any kind, in any theater, directed against any enemy, ever?
Coz I can’t.
Martin on March 5, 2007 at 12:22 PM
Psst somebody hand them a calendar along with a clue. This is the 21st century although I have no doubt Natanz is still a beautiful 16th century city.
It won’t be long before we divide time into BM and AM. Of course anything with AM behind it is also referred to as suspended animation.
LakeRuins on March 5, 2007 at 12:33 PM
For those not already in proximity, they’ll be moving as many antiquities as possible close to the nuclear sites and taking appropriately loving “before” pictures to send to Reuters in the event of attacks.
eeyore on March 5, 2007 at 12:38 PM
Remember the good old days, when Saddam rolled out the human shields?
Kid from Brooklyn on March 5, 2007 at 12:47 PM
I liked Dennis Miller’s comment about how all the old Iraqi stuff looked EXACTLY like the “new” Iraqi stuff, and that it’s impossible for anyone to tell the difference.
JG2K6 on March 5, 2007 at 12:50 PM
In other news from the peaceful Middle East land of truth and understanding we have this
Gang-rape victim faces lashes
A SAUDI woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped and then beaten by her brother has been sentenced to 90 lashes – for a meeting a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported.
LakeRuins on March 5, 2007 at 12:52 PM
Can’t we just skip to the last page where they tell us that hanging Imonamadjihad will make him a martyr.
BohicaTwentyTwo on March 5, 2007 at 12:56 PM
I seem to recall a lack of respect for certain Jewish places of historical significance, not to be all morally relative about it.
These are leaders who calculate that losing a great number of their own is an acceptable strategy for their little caliphate restoration project, I doubt they really care about a few old vases in that equation.
bbz123 on March 5, 2007 at 12:59 PM
Good. They’ll serve as landmarks. If it’s Islamic, bomb it.
RedWinged Blackbird on March 5, 2007 at 1:18 PM
The Guardian would support military action against Israel and Texas.
forest on March 5, 2007 at 1:22 PM
so who gets blamed for that? America
We forced the Iranians to put those nuke sites next to cultural treasures like forcing the Iraqis to bomb their own civilians
Defector01 on March 5, 2007 at 1:29 PM
Magbar Iran.
Buck Turgidson on March 5, 2007 at 1:54 PM
Let’s offer the Iranian mullahs this deal:
Give us Ahmadinejad in chains so we can prosecute him for invading American soil when he stormed our embassy, along with a formal apology for violating our sovereignty, and we won’t turn your country into radioactive green glass, ruining all your “relics” of the past.
georgej on March 5, 2007 at 1:58 PM
Considering that much of the Middle East is a treasure trove of antiquities just waiting to be uncovered, I’d say your chances of damaging such finds in any conflict approach 100%.
Too bad no one bothered to conduct an archeological dig along the Iran Iraq border before the two countries went to war for eight years. Who knows how much was lost in that war – besides the million+ killed.
lawhawk on March 5, 2007 at 2:19 PM
They blow of their own Muslim mosques -over a 1300 year old “religious inheritance” dispute- and we’re supposed to worry about the few remnants of the destroyed cultures, that Islam supplanted, in order to prevent this violent jihadist movement from gaining apocalyptic powers?
Nah.
If art-hating Islam is de-fanged, overthrown, and relegated to the ash-heap of history, maybe the Persian culture that produced the worried-about artifacts might be able to return to a revival of its pre-Mohammedan supressed glories.
If preventing the mad mullahs from being able to nuke Western cities requires re-breaking a few re-glued broken tiles, then, as the French archeologist of Persia, Remy Boucharlat, would say: c’est la vie.
profitsbeard on March 5, 2007 at 2:21 PM
This is priceless coming from the regime that destroyed many of its own antiquities becuase they were too “decadent”.
DFWShook on March 5, 2007 at 2:27 PM
When will the Iranian Antiques Roadshow be airing? I’d love to see how much President Ahmadinejads 1970’s nylon leisure suits are worth…
soulsirkus on March 5, 2007 at 2:41 PM
Much is this crapola comes from simple ignorance on the part of the “jounalists”, of course. While the Iranian uranium enrichment facility is often described as being at Natanz, for example, it is actually about 25 km NW of Natanz (just use Google Earth and check it out for yourself). The city is not is any serious danger. The facility is pretty much in the middle of nowhere; Natanz is simply one of the closest inhabited places of any size.
Henry Bowman on March 5, 2007 at 3:02 PM
Iran is an antiquity. A “throw-back”. The un-civilized in civilized clothing (though there is no accounting for taste, eh Ahmadinejhad?)
ej_pez on March 5, 2007 at 4:54 PM
Spec Ops to extract the antiquities?
- The Cat
P.S. What are ‘quities’ and why are they against them?
MirCat on March 5, 2007 at 7:08 PM
ElBaradei couldn’t tell you if the sun was up if he had a sunburn and was sweating. He is a classic UN toad.
I saw bomb them until we make the rubble bounce. We can always get replacement “antiquities” from China. They are on sale at CostCo for 25% off.
old_dawg on March 5, 2007 at 7:32 PM
CalDude gets a gold star on his forehead.
Anything pre-Mo is from the “days of ignorance”. Of course, as with anything islamic, it’s the exact opposite of the truth. Pre-Mo days were full of all kinds of art and science and great history. It was islam that brought ignorance to the Persians.
It’d be a real shame if something were to happen to all of that stuff, but it’s better than losing a Blue American city to an Iranian terrorist-nuke. Maybe.
Tony737 on March 6, 2007 at 4:42 AM
POOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffffffffffffffffGoodbye to Iranian Antique Road Show…..LOL
bones47 on March 6, 2007 at 1:47 PM
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