There are two kinds of history going on in the Cave of the Moonbat tonight: that of an ancient Southwest Asian superpower, and the historiography of historioranting itself.  I've been doing this pretty-much-weekly history thing for nigh on two years, and with my impending anniversary, I figured now's as good a time as any to go back into the scrolls and update some of those first History for Kossacks – the ones that didn't have any pictures (nor, for that matter, many commenters), were less than half as long as a contemporary HfK, and predate even the word I now use to describe the manner in which I seek to tell tales of the human experience.

So join me, if you will, for a redux of the very first HfK series – a proto-historiorant on Persia, land of the Aryans, now updated to fit the format that evolved in its wake.  In addition to new maps, pics, and stage-setting for the impending Islamic invasion in Part II, it never hurts to take a refresher on a land whose history seems to include every major historical figure in the ancient Middle Eastern world, from Alexander to Zoroaster.

The news mounts; Assyrian homes are found empty. Kurdification progresses; money earmarked for our survival may be rerouted to the Kurdistan Regional Government. Assyrian woman are forced into lives of prostitution to feed their children; half a million, or more, refugees clog Jordan and Syria, treated as refuse. (If you are not weak-hearted, I suggest reading Nuri Kino’s amazing report, By God: Six Days in Amman.) We are not Burmese monks or Pakistani lawyers. We are just an ancient people, divided by our church leaders, dying in Diaspora.
The voices that sang some of the first songs in human history will soon be silenced forever, while the world yawns.

There are two major classes of falsehoods the U.S. government uses to justify its incursions into the Middle East and occupation of Iraq.

The first is a contrived threat to the U.S., like Saddams's cache of WMD’s or links to Al-Qaeda, desgined to invoke fear and patriotism in mainstream Americans. Though much discussed and long ago debunked in the liberal blogosphere, it's being dusted off and reused for Iran.

The second class of lies is aimed at a different group - the Christian right-wing of America. This catergory of lie says that the U.S. must invade and occupy the Middle East because America's Christian way of life is threatened by "Islamo-Fascists." (Any liberal who objects is fascist too.)

The standard m.o. for this class of lie is to denigrate Islam by equating it with terrorism and to paint a picture that shows Muslims hate America for its Christian beliefs. This 2nd class of lies is designed to rally the Christian right to support war and the Republican party - and is the focus of this diary.

Like the first, it allows them to wreak havoc with impunity.

A new report is due out this December. I am sure it will be a stoic and sobering occasion. A funerary occasion of sorts.....

The report will be a summary of the destruction of the Archaeological sites in Iraq.  There are at least 10,000 sites, and since the Occupation of Iraq began there has been systematic looting and Destruction.

There is the destruction by the Occupying forces themselves. Over a year ago, I wrote a diary; Our lost heritage: Halliburton and the destruction of Babylon.

...While we so ardently scream about WMDs, about the wickedness of the Baath party, about the presence of terrorists, and toss around phrases like "liberty" and "military operation," while we struggle with the rebuilding of Iraq, it would behoove us to give a thought to what was lost as well...

Thursday morning, I listened to Fred Kagan on an NPR program telling the world how well the "surge" is going, how Iran is a trouble maker, and the rest of the standard neoconservative line of bunk.  

Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and was a chief architect of the so-called surge plan.  Along with his father Donald and brother Robert, Fred Kagan was a key member of Bill Kristol's Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the "think tank" that brought us our Mesopotamia mistake.  

It's little wonder that Fred's painting a rosy picture.  

While doing research this week in the London Times Digital Archives, in 1920-1921, I was stunned to see headline after headline that could have been lifted from today's news.  I've read some histories of the British in Iraq, or Mesopotamia as it was called then, including David Fromkin's excellent A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922 (Henry Holt 1989), but I was unprepared for how eerily similar the news sounded.  I read through numerous articles and thought I would include some interesting excerpts and headlines for a one-year period, Aug 1920-July 1921.  Unfortunately, the Times Digital Archive is a subscription database, so I can't provide links to any of the articles.  If you have access to the archive, however, I suggest reading some of the full articles for yourself.

From my blog, Corrente.
Like all cultures, the culture of ancient Mesopotamia is rich, complex, and contains plenty of different versions of each set of myths across the four millennia of its history for which we have literature. The mythic cycle of Dumuzi is no exception. He's understood as the Shepard whose fields of new grass lie in the near desert, perhaps a representation of the integration of "civilized" city cultures and those of the desert dwelling "newcomers." He is the husband of Inanna, who is the goddess of sex, lust and battle(lust) and symbolic wife of kings. His sister is the goddess of the grape, and she both loves and laments him in song. He is a lover, a trickster, and in one set of myths, goes down into the underworld to die for the sins of others, only to be raised up to a seat of honor after many trials and lamentations.