Lion of Babylon Statue Bombed, Destroyed

[babylonsister]

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3750/Lion_of_Babylon_Statue_Bombed_Destroyed

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.

[DrDan]

1. what an absolute shame

it will be a miracle if any of these treasures survive

[KharmaTrain]

2. Just As The British Are About To "Bug Out"...

This morning CSPAN had a military mouthpiece saying black is white...Al Queda, Al Queda, Al Queda...except when the spin word was Shiite then it was Iran, Iran, Iran. Either he's blissfully ignorant of what's happening or is a very bad liar. His big claim was how things were "calming down".

So now what? Do we surge into Basra once the British leave? Any problems here surely will suck in Iran. More Iraqi Whack-a-Mole anyone???

[NYC]

3. More about the statue:

...Hussein Sahab wants to keep his job. He shows the visitor that the Lion of Babylon is still standing: it has not been stolen or vandalized. The Lion of Babylon - supposedly a trophy from Hitite times, middle of the 2nd millennium BC - is an enigmatic basalt statue representing a man who is about to be killed by a lion. But in fact the man is resisting: with one hand he tries to shove the lion's mouth away, and with the other he fights one of the lion's menacing paws. Legend rules that as long as the statue is there, Babylon will never be conquered...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED26Ak06.html

[malaise]

8. I'm not sure I have any tears left

Bush will never be forgiven.

[NYC]

18. That certainly is true.

Bush will never be forgiven.

[liberal N proud]

4. The destruction of these antiquities will be forever on the hands of the United States

Let history know that this is George W. Bush's doing, not necessarily the people of the United States but one regime that controls it at this point in history.

They have no respect for the past and can only concentrate on their own greed.

[TheBaldyMan]

17. eighty years old hardly makes it an antiquity, it's the cradle of western civilisation

it's nearly the only place in the world where three thousand year old artefacts can be described as late period.

Actually the pillaging of antiquities and the vandalism of world heritage sites are far worse and on a much wider scale than this. I've heard of GIs filling sand bags with rubble containing clay fragments with cuneiform writing on them in at least one site.

[Donnachaidh]

5. unidentified gunmen

So do we have any blackwater people in the area? Someone had to ask. :shrug:

[thunder rising]

6. This smells of false flag...

There was no religious significance to the statue and only the maniac King George would profit.

[AnnieBW]

19. Except to us Goddess worshippers

Ishtar is gonna be PISSED. As if she's not already... She's gonna go get her sister Erishkigal to go old-school on someone...

[kevinbgoode]

7. You don't think they were using explosives attached to cheese...

do ya?

And that's a sad thing. Terrorism on all levels never builds anything - like war, it only destroys.

[hootinholler]

13. Behold! The power of CHEESE! n/t

[cureautismnow]

9. Senseless Destruction.

I hope the Egyptian antiquities are never subject to such a wanton disregard for history. :-(

[pwb]

10. Hear that General Petraeus???

[BlooInBloo]

11. I'm having trouble generating the proper amount of outrage for this....

... since that area of the world has like 10,000 year old artifacts. 80 years old? Whatever.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. Well, artifacts become 10,000 years old by surviving 80 years,

many, many times in a row.

Myself, I think the brits blew it up out of spite.

[BlooInBloo]

15. An interesting way to go: it's a "pre-artifact" - lol!

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Well, I was always taken with Indiana Jones and the

'bury a ten dollar watch in the sand for a thousand years' notion.

In another couple thousand years, after civilization went all digigal and left few, if any, written records, our history will be told by the fallen remains of the Civil War statues on our courthouse lawns.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. "Let Freedom Reign!"

They must be running out of things to blow up there. Peace is at hand.