Lion of Babylon Statue Bombed, Destroyed (Basra)

[Barrett808]

Source: VOI

Lion of Babylon Statue Bombed, Destroyed
Eighty-Year-Old Basra Landmark Blown Up by Gunmen This Morning

Basra, Jul 29, (VOI) – Unidentified gunmen blew up the Lion of Babylon statue in central Basra during the early hours of Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

"An explosive charge was planted under the statue, completely destroying it the historical monument in Basra," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The statue, one of the historical landmarks in Basra, 590 km south of Baghdad, was built in the 1920s and symbolized the Babylonian civilization.

The Lion of Babylon, large and splendidly carved in basalt, is reminiscent of the legend that the lion was the symbol of the goddess Ishtar, the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of love, fertility, and war. In the sculpture, the lion's back has marks indicating that it was meant for a precious saddle upon which the goddess Ishtar would stand.

Read more: http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3750

[bdamomma]

1. this has got to stop.

[TomInTib]

2. Oh, no... I have seen that statue.

I have always kept that picture in my memory.

And I suppose that's where it is going to stay.

[maddezmom]

3. so sad

:cry:

[Double T]

4. History is being obliterated.

This is really sad.

[Ian David]

5. Maybe they just hate Dustin Hoffman?

[JitterbugPerfume]

6. that is what war does

it distroys

That is only part of the reason why I am (mostly) pacificist

[closeupready]

7. Idiots.

n/t

[SpiralHawk]

8. What the hell, it's just a chunk of stone. Smirk." - Commander AWOL

"I mean, it's not like anything important like the the Skull & Boner crypt clubhouse of my occult cabal got wrecked, or anything. Bab bab bab, bab bab-a-lon. Smirk, smirk, smirk."

- Commander AWOL, hero of the Skull & Boner brigade of republicon chickenhawk war profiteers.

[Seabiscuit]

9. Why don't they just blow themselves up??? Oh, wait... they're already doing that. n/t

[xchrom]

10. lashing out at anything.

that's all people are doing now -- destroying anything that they think might have some meaning to someone else.

[grilled onions]

11. So symbolic

What was is no more. What it represented is no longer. War destroys the present but can also ruin the positives of the past and breed negatives long into the future the longer a war persists. WAR= world all ruined.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Symbolic of what, though?

The piece says it was built in the 1920s. So was it commemorating indepence from the Ottoman Empire, after WW1? Commemorating the fight against the British in the 1920? Was it fascist Islamists destroying an 'idol' as prescribed by their interpretation of the Quran?

So much history. So many choices.

[Mojorabbit]

15. My guess

as it is a pagan symbol that fundamentalist islamists blew it up ala the taliban and those beautiful buddhas. Or it could have just been someone wanting to blow up something.

[ohio2007]

13. The Taliban blew up Buddist statues in Afghanistan

pretty ignorant thing of the to destroy. I think Chinese engineers went in there to repair the damage as best they could

[mulsh]

14. it was built in the 1920's guess who were the occupiers at that

time? our allies the brits. perhaps the people who destroyed this statute see it as a symbol of oppression. The British were not exactly welcomed with garland of flowers either. just saying.