The Command Post - Iraq - "Aussies: Iraq hides arms in historic sites"

April 02, 2003

"Aussies: Iraq hides arms in historic sites"

From this:

Australia Wednesday accused Iraq of using historic sites to hide its weapons and Prime Minister John Howard continued to defend the length of the war... Australian Defense Force spokesman Brig. Mike Hannan said Iraq was using historic sites, such as the Ctesiphon, to hide its weapons... According to Hannan, Iraqi vehicles were parked in strategic places at the site, which is protected under The Hague Convention.

Hannan said the Iraqis were also using hospitals and humans for similar purposes.

"It is absolutely a tactic and I mean it reflects in all sorts of ways ... the use of hospitals, the use of civilian shields, the use of troops dressed in civilian clothes and traveling in civilian vehicles and then mounting a surprise attack, this is all consistent behavior," he said.

Also see the earlier post "Protecting Iraq's ancient treasures" and the article 'Russian Culture Minister Hands List of Iraqi Monuments to US Ambassador'.

Posted By Lonewacko at April 2, 2003 02:14 AM | TrackBack

Comments

How do I put this? I think it's important to take a long-term viewpoint here. Any damage to historic sites that is not absolutely necessary will make the U.S. look very very bad for years (if not decades) to come.

However, hopefully Iraq's tactics can be used to the U.S.'s advantage now. Endangering historic sites is just one more item that makes (or at least can be made to make) Iraq look bad.

Posted by: Lonewacko at April 2, 2003 02:33 AM

This is not new for Iraq, they did the same thing during Gulf War I. Look through the whitehouse document apparatus of lies for examples from then. On Page 8, for example, there is a photograph showing where "during the Gulf War, the Iraqi regime placed two military aircraft next to the ancient Ur ziggurat near Tallil, Iraq."

Posted by: Robin Goodfellow at April 2, 2003 02:44 AM

Lonewacko, anyone who hasn't already had enough of Iraqi monstrosities must be in a coma, or a jihadi.

Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) at April 2, 2003 03:25 AM

We don't want to repeat what happened to the Parthenon: Turks filled it with gunpowder, a single errant shell, ka-blooey.

Hopefully we'll be over the hump before that kind of thing.

Posted by: Der Blaue Engel at April 2, 2003 03:27 AM

...for which everyone blames the Turks, not the Greeks who fired the shell.

Posted by: Alan E Brain at April 2, 2003 03:39 AM

In that conflict, neither the Greeks nor the Turks were American, and therefore blame was assigned according to a rational examination of the evidence. This time, no matter the evidence, the world will blame the US. It's almost enough to make me stop caring what the world thinks.

Posted by: Morpheus at April 2, 2003 11:23 AM