Monday 5 March 2007

Close, But No Cigar


Still hanging around in Iran, the Guardian has an article on John Curtis of the British Museum, who is worried about a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities because they are "perilously close" to many archaeological sites.

How close? Well, let's take Persepolis, which Dr. Curtis points out is "within 50 miles of the Ardakan and Fasa uranium processing plants".

Fifty miles? That's practically around the corner-- or would be if the Coalition didn't have precision munitions that can fly through an outhouse window at 600 miles range or warheads that can take out one room in a building and leave the rest intact. Still, it is curious that Dr. Curtis is so concerned about the prospect of an attack on Iran's nuclear weapons sites, yet he is not about who put those military targets near archaeological treasures in violation of the Geneva Conventions in the first place.

Or, perhaps, it isn't too curious, as Dr. Curtis doesn't seem bothered at all by the prospect of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, New York, or even London with the British Museum with all its treasures being targeted with nuclear weapons by a regime that for 27 years has used "death to Israel, death to Britain, death to America" the way other people use "have a nice day."

That, apparently, is not a problem.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, but Iran doesn't HAVE a nuclear weapon yet...you must see their logic here, David.