Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What Really Happened in the Middle East Today

I don't want to make this into a forum for another blogger's comments; however, he had some very wise words today:

All commentaries by Webmaster of
Wake the Flock Up

"Babylon's history swept away in US army sandbags

Fragments of bricks, engraved with cuneiform characters thousands of years old, lie mixed with the rubble and sandbags left by the US military on the ancient site of Babylon in Iraq. In this place, one of the cradles of civilisation, US troops in 2003-2004 built embankments, dug ditches and spread gravel to hold the fuel reservoirs needed to supply the heliport of Camp Alpha.

"One of the great crimes committed against the people of Iraq was the looting of the Baghdad Museum and the destruction of many important ancient sites inside Iraq.

More to the point, I think that destruction of ancient sites is deliberate policy.

Egypt is literally littered with the ruins of the ancient temples and palaces of her rulers. As much as has been found, it is estimated that only 1/3 of Egypt's archeological wonders have been uncovered. A newly discovered temple was uncovered while digging a sewer line, and a cache of finely preserved mummies was literally stumbled over by a cow in a pasture
.

Iraq's ancient heritage was enshrined in its ancient sites and museum. As a result of the war, many of those sites have been damaged or destroyed. Part of the ancient city or Ur now lies underneath a US air base runway. The treasures of the museum have only partly been recovered. The treasures from the looted archaeological sites have been scattered to the world, or as is noted in this article, simply pulverized and used for sandbag fill
.

All of this wealth of archaeological treasures in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc. must of course annoy Israel. We are raised from birth with Old Testament tales of the greatness of the ancient Israelites, of the powerful kingdoms of Solomon and David and the first temple. Yet Israel, while rich in antiquities, is almost totally devoid of artifacts from this supposedly glorious time in her history. The existence of the fabled First Temple was supported with just two artifacts, a carved staff ornament in the shape of a pomegranate and the Jehoash tablet. Both of these artifacts have recently been exposed as frauds. We are told that once there was a magnificent temple on that hill, but it "all went away." The wonders emerging from the soil of Egypt, Iraq, and Iran serve as a constant reminder that ancient buildings of such a scale as we are told the First Temple was simply cannot vanish without a trace
.

There is considerable reason to suspect that the tales told in the Old Testament are just that; tales. The Bible is not science, it is the collected stories of a primitive tribal people telling each other how important they once were. And like fishermen talking about the won that got away, or Ramses with his temple carvings of the did-not-really-happen victory over the Hittites at Kadesh, the writers of the ancient testaments assumed that the people they were telling stories to had no way to verify the claims for themselves. So "embellishment" was a low-risk activity.


We do know from the available archaeological evidence that the
Exodus probably actually happened to the Hyksos, not the Israelites. We know that the story of Moses is suspect because no Egyptian princess would hide a Hebrew child inside Pharaoh's household, then give the kid a Hebrew name ("Moses" is actually an Egyptian title meaning "Prince" and is included in the names of many Pharaoh's names such as Tut-Moses, Ah-Moses, Ra-Moses (Ramses) etc.) But a good story is a good story and the writers of the ancient texts were probably not thinking much further into the future than the guys who pen the "Celebrity dates space alien" stories you see at supermarket checkout lines. The fact that the celebrity is a real person does not prove the space alien exists. It's just a story.

But, over time, entire religions with attendant wealth and power structures have been built on the premise that these stories really happened exactly as written. And today, here in the 21st century world, technology has started to catch up with these ancient legends and call many of them into doubt
.

So, for a nation that justifies its existence on the writings of the Torah, the plethora of sites and artifacts confirming the ancient histories of Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc. etc. etc. must seem a dire political threat for a nation whose own ancient history seems to have left little if any traces
.

In that context, the strange behavior of the US military which posted guards around the Iraq oil ministry while leaving the Baghdad museum unguarded suddenly starts to make sense, if the supporters of a very insecure nation decide that leveling the archaeological playing field is preferable to allowing the obvious disparity in archaeological proofs of claimed ancient histories to stand clear in the world's view!

"Mumbai Terror Group Trained American Jihadists

A growing chorus of intelligence officials in the U.S. and in south Asia have pinned the Mumbai attacks on the Kashmir-based militants Lashkar-e-Taiba. But there's been hardly any mention of the extremist group's deep ties to American-based jihadists.

"Yeah, we're being "pre-sold" on who to blame for the next faked terror attack!"

"UNHRC calls for more Israeli concessions

UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday called on Israel to lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.After two days of discussions, the council, which consists of 47 member states, passed a list of 99 'recommendations' of gestures for Israel to make to ease Palestinian suffering, including freeing all prisoners.

"This will happen....when pigs fly.

The only thing that will get the government of Israel's attention is a concerted, united, and immediate withdrawal of all financial, military aid, and economic cooperation from the rest of the world to show Israel that the world will not stand by, and allow the catastrophe Israel has created in Gaza to continue
.

Of course, that won't happen, because world leaders have been completely brainwashed that everything Israel does "in self defense" (like preventing infants from getting desperately needed medical attention to save their lives, or causing malnutrition in kids by preventing food supplies in) is
perfectly justifiable

"Livni calls of a large-scaled military offensive in Gaza

Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, stated on Wednesday that the Israeli army should carry a large-scaled military offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for what she described as "the violation of the truce". On the ground, Israel already violated the truce, carried offensives, killed, wounded and kidnapped Palestinians, and kept the border crossings sealed in spite that the truce states that Israel should open the border terminals. Yet, Livni said that Israel must make it clear to Hamas that it is responsible for the deterioration of the situation.

"Memo to Foreign Minister Livni:

You and your colleagues in the Israeli must be damned proud of yourselves. Gaza has been starved, medical attention has been denied to desperately ill Gazan Palestinians, and you folks have collectively done a grand job of "softening Gazan Palestinians up" for the Israeli military "kill".

But understand this: you're not going to be able to get away with this without full-blown reports of the carnage, mayhem, and destruction you will create getting out for a watching - and stunned - world to see.

Be careful what you wish for, Minister Livni: immoral actions have a way of not delivering quite the result you had anticipated. In fact, many times those actions have a way of producing the absolutely diametric opposite outcome to what you hoped to accomplish."