Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria have entered the Unesco World Heritage site of Palmyra after seizing the town next to the ancient ruins, reports say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were no reports yet of any destruction of artefacts.
The militants had taken control of the nearby airport, prison and intelligence HQ after government forces pulled out of the area, the monitoring group said.
From a professional standpoint I understand the concern over the cultural resources, but isn’t the torturing, killing, and raping of living people reason enough to put an end to this movement? They are this time’s iteration of the Nazis, or Khmer Rouge, or any other murderous group we humans have a terrible tendency to form.
Not to worry, just a JV team that is in over its head. Or, so we have been told.
The question is, who pays for it? International effort always seems to boil down to the U.S. having to take care of it. Being the world’s policeman has already bankrupted us, in addition to taking many American lives. If the international community does not pony up the money, cash on the barrel head (which they won’t), I would only intervene again in Iraq under the understanding we are then entitled to their oil resources, both to pay us for this intervention and the past war. That would probably not be palatable to the Iraqis (although they may have no choice at that point), or to the Russians or Chinese.