american philistines

saddam hussein built a giant palace at the ruins of ancient babylon, but did relatively little damage --- not so, our army who 

flattened a large area for "hard standing" for heavy vehicles and  helicopters which themselves caused considerable damage both to the underlying site structure and to some standing buildings. Worse still, a helicoptor landing zone led to the destruction and removal of the ziggurat debris left by alexander's troops and hephaestion's funeral pyre, both of immense archeological importance. Tanks and heavy vehcicles ere also driven along the processional way, destroying forever the well-preserved street surface on which nebuchadnezzar, dariuis, and alexander had once walked and whose bricks preserved their names.

the army knew what it was doing, but just didn't see what the problem was until it was too late --- this is kinda old news but it still makes me sick to read about it