SCULPTURAL CLARITY!

Remember all that outrage and righteous indignation in 2000/2001 when the Taliban blew up those Buddha statues?

Well it appears that Bush and the chickenhawks have come around on the issue

War in Iraq would halt archaeology not just in that country but across the Middle East, experts say, and could result in some of the earliest cities of Mesopotamia being bombed or looted into ruins of ruins.

Researchers with long experience in Iraq say they are worried that postwar looting could cause even more damage to the antiquities than combat. They also fear that some art dealers and collectors might try to take advantage of any postwar disarray and change in government to gain access to more of Iraq's archaeological treasures. After the Persian Gulf war of 1991, ancient treasures were plundered and sold illegally in international markets.

Ahhh, say the Bushies, who needs all them terrrah-ist artifacts anyway? After all, Gilgamesh, Hammurabi and Ishtar constituted an old-ass axis of evil, right? So it ain't no thang!

Archaeology in Israel, already curtailed by internal hostilities, is expected to suffer further interruptions, with almost none of 30 American excavations likely to be operating soon. At one of the largest sites, the ruins of the old Philistine city of Ashkelon, archaeologists have not dug a pit for two years and will not return this summer.

NOOOOO! We'll never find Christ Jesus now!

War is hell, isn't it.