Ham-Handedness

No matter what you think of the War in Iraq, it was a stupid decision to set up a base on top of a valuable archeological site.

LONDON -- US-led troops using the ancient Iraqi city of Babylon as a base
have damaged and contaminated artifacts dating back thousands of years in one of
the most important archeological sites in the world, the British Museum said
yesterday.

Military vehicles crushed a 2,600-year-old brick pavement, for example, and
archeological fragments, including broken bricks stamped by King Nebuchadnezzar
II around the same time, were scattered across the site, a museum report
said.

The dragons at the Ishtar Gate were marred by cracks and gaps where
someone tried to remove their decorative bricks, the paper said.

John Curtis, keeper of the British Museum's Near East department, who
was invited by Iraqis to study the site, also found that large quantities of
sand mixed with archeological fragments have been taken from the site to fill
military sandbags.

We aren't winning any hearts and minds with stuff like this.