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The Riddle of Baghdad's Battery
Jodrell writes "The BBC has an interesting article about a 2,200 year old battery discovered in Iraq in 1938. It is basically a clay pot containing a copper/iron core immersed in an electrolye solution (probably acidic vinegar). The article talks about how this priceless artifact as well as many others, from the same civilisation that invented writing and the wheel, could be threatened by the impending war."
Don't get me wrong, I think the old battery is neat.
HOWEVER
I think it's really sad that "what about the battery" is even considered a worhty concern in the war issue. Regardless of your side on the issue there are peoples lives involved here. Hawks you're concerned about the threat to American lives, and doves tend to be concerned about the threat to the Iraqi people's lives.
Either way, concerns about an old clay pot seem to pale in comparison
This is just another example of why aggressive archaelology is generally a bad thing. Archaeologists, whose real aim is to 'advance science' which just so happens to translate into not ever having to leave academia and get a job, make it their aim to uproot and document everything.
Once all the evidence and traces, which happened to have survived all the years for various reasons, is housed in steel and glass buildings, we can be assured that within a few generations it'll be reduced to dust.
Two hundred years from now when they've perfected some sort of x-ray telemetry measurement and can 'view' tombs without doing anything at all to disturb their contents, there won't be any tombs left undisturbed.
But Johnny won't have had to go out and get a job after graduating. He's got tenure now.
Wow, you really think attacking Iraq will help fight terrorism?
1 .a sp
Think about it like this: I certainly acknowledge that Saddam is a "bad man" and it'd be nice to get rid of him. However, what is the cost? And I'm not talking about the military cost: it'd be pretty minimal, seeing as how our military is huge and all. I'm talking about the political outfall.
Look at Pakistan and India. That would likely destabilize. Look at Russia and Checnya. If the US goes to a preemptive war Russia might use the same excuse. And look at this whole damned East-vs-West Judaeo-Christian-vs-Islam conflict. It's already pretty polarized, and attacking Iraq would just make it worse.
And let's also look at the justification we have for attacking Iraq. They might have "weapons of mass destruction". Now ignore the great hypocrisy about what that makes us (seeing as how we are the world's greatest manufacturer, supplier and possessor of weapons of all sorts), and there's still a problem. That is, either they have these weapons or they don't. If they don't, then no sweat. If they do, then attacking them will just provoke them into using it, likely either on US troops in the region or Israel (the closest convenient target).
Sometimes I think that people like Ashcroft are just using their power to play out their own fundamentalist fantasies, a la this Chick strip:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1000/1000_0
Suuuuure...since the people living there are not the exact descendants of those that created the artifacts, bombing the shit out of them (the people and the archeological sites) is A-OK!
The cultural legacy hasn't been erased, its been buried. They could still be dug out...or destroyed by the vultures who thirst for blood and oil.
But who cares about culture and history...those SUVs are getting expensive to drive...kill a few iraqis so the price of gas will go down already, huh?
Sigh...
You can't take the sky from me...
This must be the most pathetic anti-war stretch to date.
We must stand by and permit the torture and murder of unknown tens of thousands of Iraqis by the Hussein regime, and condemn an entire generation of Iraqis to lifelong misery and terror, because the alternative has the remote chance of destroying an ancient battery!
The priorities of the author are certainly on display.
Now tell me what incentives Germany and Belgium have to oppose war?
Fucking America. One of your commments on some poll expressed the belief that you'd "never want to move to the USA". I'm constantly amazed at how much contempt Europeans have for Americans - it doesn't usually show until the subject of the US government comes up. It's astounding how they can treat you like a friend, but then tell you that you're a tool of a brutal, corrupt state that deserved what it got on 9-11 (or that your president planned it).
Frankly, I'd never move to Europe, because I know I'd be treated like lowlife, uncultured scum there, and told tasteless Bush jokes all the time by morons who elected Chirac and Schroeder.
No you idiot. My point was that all these hippy pot smoking assholes want to sit around on their hands. Sadly it's going to take another terrorist attack to wake these idiots up.
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