Most early Christian churches were constructed over pagan sites; this was common, as was adoption of of holidays with seasonal connotations. Christmas for Winter Solstice; Easter for Vernal Equinox. What’s unusual is the Christian defensiveness regarding its adoption of pagan sites/rituals. Other religions just let other beliefs in; the Romans never cared so long as you worshipped their gods too. They were reasonable people unlike Americans, and that explains how they managed to control an Empire for a thousand years, while the U.S. is crumbling while I type. But I digress.

The Dutch are amazing people and they “walk the walk.” Generally the Dutch sheltered Jews during the Holocaust, and practiced a nonviolent resistance against the Third Reich.

Holland is also an interesting rebuttal to the belief that being a capitalist country means blight, pollution, poverty, homelessness, healthlessness, disease. Wealth can be redistributed; all Americans in the room repeat that mantra as often as possible.

Folktruther, I think they just changed the symbols when they re-took an area, as when Spain pushed the Moors out in 1492, or when the Moslems regained control of Jerusalem from the Christian Crusaders. It seems when an empire takes over new territory, the barbaric urge to totally destroy the existing population wins out.

Maybe that explains some of the stories in the Old Testament too…

Thank you, Xntrk, for putting the US destruction of Iraqi art treasures in historical perspective.  The War on Terrorism initited a retrograde barbarism of the US, including torture, lawless imprisonment, power secrecy and the like. This barbarism is merely one aspect of that War.

My understanding was when one religion conquered the country of another, it merely CONVERTED the churches, mosques, temples, etc to the other, putting a cross on top, etc.  But the idea here, I guess, was to destroy five thousand year Iraq’s history to more easily subjugate the people.

Folktruther,
I think my mind is on vacation. I had to roll your comments around in my brain files for awhile. But then I realized the Eduardo Galeano trilogy about the history of the Americas provides the best comparison and perhaps an inkling of an explanation.

The Spaniards totally destroyed the culture and artifacts of the native Americans. Right down to the dust, where ever possible. It is common to see Cathedrals built on the platform of Mayan temples.

In our own time, Pol Pot destroyed the ancient statues in Burma in a fit of vandalism.

All three of these erasures are a result of more than an empirical change. What they have in common is the religious significance of what was destroyed. The Nazis looted Europe, but both The Axis and the Allies avoided destroying religious sites. Think about it, we were enemies, but culturally the same. That was not true in Iraq, The Americas, or Burma. Nor is it true between the Palestinians and Israelis. First cousins, but an anathema to each other [I have some cousins like that when I think about it ] Certainly much Judeo-Christian-Muslim history is being destroyed in that ancient land.

I guess the rational for Iraq is that we Christians were not going to protect and defend a bunch of Muslim history…

Xntrk, I was shocked by the initial US apprach to the looting of the Iraqi national museum, which US guards were not emplaced to guard it.  Later, the US military ENCOURAGED the looting of Iraqi’s national heritage, presumably to chasten the national spirit to help subdue the Iraqi population.  I don’t know to what extent this barbarism is characteristic of imperialist invasions.  I assumed that invaders merely looted; in this case the Americans appeared to want to destroy.

One of the biggest tragedies of the Iraq War, after the huge loss of life, is the theft and destruction of the historical sites and art. The National Library contained manuscripts predating both Judaism and Christianity, it was looted as out soldiers stood guard. We are so ignorant, that our troops vandalized mosaic artworks dating back to Babylon for souvenirs.

Except for a handfull of historians and artists, there was no outcry against the destruction. The outcome of the oil grab was considered more newsworthy. I wonder if we were to invade
Egypt and destroy the Pyramids, if the world would notice? I rather doubt it, especially if Bruno Cohen had a new outrageous flick released at the same time, or if Paul McCartney died and the paparazzi went crazy as they did for Princess Di and Michael Jackson. Those are two noteworthy examples of our modern culture; people we can be proud of and will be remembered for ages to come… Just imagine the glorious works we will leave behind.

The Nazis looted the art of Europe and Russia. Now we have continued the trend in the Mid East and Asia. But, all is well. Sixty-nine stolen art works are being returned to their rightful home in Iraq, assuming it ever becomes stable enough to accept them.