Good news / bad news in Babylon

Easy to forget that we're occupying the cradle of civilization. This article reminded me of the horror of the sacking of the museums in Baghdad after the war. Ruined Treasures in Babylon Await an Iraq Without Fighting

Babylon, the mud-brick city with the million-dollar name, has paid the price of war. It has been ransacked, looted, torn up, paved over, neglected and roughly occupied. Archaeologists said American soldiers even used soil thick with priceless artifacts to stuff sandbags.

But Iraqi leaders and United Nations officials are not giving up on it. They are working assiduously to restore Babylon, home to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and turn it into a cultural center and possibly even an Iraqi theme park.

No one is saying this is going to happen anytime soon, but what makes the project even conceivable is that the area around Babylon is one of the safest in Iraq, a beacon of civilization, once again, in a land of chaos.

Interesting to note that this particular corner of Iraq is not caught up in the violence and madness. Hopeful too.