THE CULTURAL ASPECT OF THE CRISIS OVER IRAQ

Observers suspect the new American-led war in the Gulf is actually about oil rather than weapons of mass destruction that Iraq allegedly hides.

To this economic aspect of the new Gulf war, there is a cultural one as well. Iraq is a cradle of civilization, as is very well known to anyone who attended classes in history or the Bible. Dr of Philology Professor Dmitri Mikulski holds a senior research position at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

The construction of the famous Tower of Babel, in the Old Testament, led to ethnic divisions and the current conflict in the end. Babel, or Babylon, was in Mesopotamia, the area between the Iraqi rivers TIgris and Euphrates. In the 5th millennium BC, the Sumerians who dominated Mesopotamia at the time developed agriculture and started growing dates, manufacturing pottery and smelting metals. They created elaborate myths, recording them in cuneiform writing, which also served government and everyday purposes. They founded cities and they built ziggurat pyramids that prototyped the Tower of Babel. Two Semitic peoples, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, who superseded the Sumerians after arriving from the Arabian Peninsula, made further contributions to human civilization. Achievement in Mesopotamia crucially influenced the ancient Egyptians, the Jews, the Iranians, the Greeks and the Romans. These cultures passed it on to modern Europe and the Americas.

The Arabs, when they annexed Mesopotamia into their Khalifat after adopting Islam in the 7th century AD, named the territory al-Iraq, which means a riverside slope. They inherited the ancient civilization of the Sumerians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Arab scholars in Baghdad, Mosul, Kufa and Basra kept the memory of their Mesopotamian predecessors. In the period from the 8th through the 13th century AD, Iraq was the cultural and political backbone of the Islamic world. In the 19th century, British and later German archaeologists started to bring its old treasures back to light. In the 20th century, archaeologists from the Soviet Union productively worked in Iraq.

The number one treasure is the ruins of Babylon not far from Baghdad. A presidential palace in the vicinity is likely to attract American fire as an alleged warehouse of mass destruction stockpiles. Firing on the palace spells hitting the Walls of Babel, as these were described by Father of History Herodotus. Indeed, the recent wars in the Balkans showed America's much-hyped smart bombs to be not quite so smart as was previously claimed.

Other treasures for pounding by American bombs in and near Baghdad include the city's Antiquities Museum, palaces of Sassanid Persian Kings, two magnificent medieval medresas, Al Mustansyriya and Al Mardjaniya, the palace of the Abbasid Khalif An-Nasyr, fragments of medieval town walls, ornate mosques and mausoleums of Moslem saints. All now need protection from the defenders of human rights who came to rain bombs on the heads of Baghdad's sanctions-weary townsfolk. Human life counts for little when huge oil interests are at stake.

In northern Iraq, where coalition warplanes have been enforcing a no-fly zone for many years on end, the area around Mosul contains numerous early Christian ruins and also what remains of cities in ancient Assyria, including the capital Nineveh. South of Mosul, tourists once flocked to the ruins of the Hellenistic town of Al Hadr, built in the 2st century BC.

The one-time Abbasid seat Samarra north of Baghdad along the road to Mosul offers a range of Arabic-era targets to attacking American planes. These include the 9th century spiral minaret of Khalif al-Muttawakil, two palaces from the same century, the central mosque, the mosque of Emir Abu Dulaf and the mausoleum of two sanctified Shiite Imams, Al-Hadi and Hasan Al-Askari, who were direct descendants of Ali ibn Abu Talib, cousin of Prophet Mohammed.

These and many other architectural and archaeological treasures in Iraq are part and parcel of universal heritage these days. What can be done to save them from being destroyed with latest weaponry in the attackers' hands ?

Even educated Iraqis believe their heritage enjoys protection by God. A young manager who showed me around Samarra said an attempt by an American pilot to bomb the medieval city in 1991 was thwarted by the appearance of a mounted and sword-wielding Imam Ali on his radar screen. The Imam interfered to protect his family graves in Samarra. The pilot got terribly frightened and flew away.

Indeed, cultural treasure troves like Samarra would not have survived to this day if they hadn't had a divine shield over them. But do not test God's will in vain ! People around the world must speak up if they don't want to behave like indifferent camels and stupidly watch Iraq's heritage go to hell. The camel, by the way, is not so stupid as it is portrayed in the Western tradition. It is a smart and hard working animal which helped Asian tribes survive in their inhospitable desert environments".