Palmyra was saved from ISIS, ancient wonders of Iraq were not (VIDEO)

The Battle of Mosul is officially a stalemate. It is clear that the Iraqi forces, the Americans, and the deceptive Turks, all summarily underestimated the strength of ISIS forces in the region. This was folly, as northern Iraq is where the group now known as ISIS first coalesced. A would be ‘Battle of Berlin’, at least where Iraq is concerned, shouldn’t have been organised so poorly.

What’s worse, the battle which was supposed to be over in weeks, was in many respects designed to be an election stunt. Had the US allied forces secured something that could be remotely twisted by the press as a victory, there is little doubt that Obama would have used that to vindicate his and Hillary Clinton’s Middle East policy.

The patent irresponsibility of using war as a tool for political gain has been predictably ignored by the western mainstream media.

Other reports which are consistent with the US policy aim of destabilising Syria in order to procure an easy ‘regime change’, say that many of the ISIS top-brass have been allowed by the US and Turkey, to receive safe passage out of Mosul and into Syria where they will undoubtedly regroup in Raqqa.

In spite of this, the ISIS forces that remain in Mosul are not going down without a fight. Meanwhile, civilians in the city are suffering, and not just because of increased violence from ISIS but also because of ‘collateral damage’ from coalition bombings.

But there have been other victims of the battle too. It appears that the ancient Assyrian cities of Nimrud and Nineveh have been utterly decimated by ISIS. What’s more is that the coalition forces seem to have all but abandoned any hope of saving what remains of these Mesopotamian wonders.

Unlike Saddam, who took a keen interest in preserving the monuments to the ancient cultures in Iraq, and did so under the guise that Ba’athist Iraq was a kind of Arab reincarnation of those past civilisations, the current government has neither the will nor expertise to save what’s left after the destruction left behind by the barbaric hands of ISIS.

The only Iraqi monument which will not be touched, is the monument to the wickedness of George Bush and Tony Blair, whose destruction of a prosperous and united country continues to kill civilians and destroy cultural heritage to this day.

This contrasts sharply with the Ba’athist government in Syria, who continue to preserve the beautiful ancient monuments which dot the country. The ancient city of Palmyra has been demined, and archaeologists have returned to survey the treasures saved from ISIS.

After the Syrian Arab Army with the aid of Russian forces liberated Palmyra,  world renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev led a poignant musical concert in the ancient amphitheater of Palmyra. The scenes which unfolded were surreal, beautiful and deeply moving. The bombs had gone quiet, the mines removed, the air strikes over.

The same stage upon which ISIS fighters executed their captives was now home to a Russian orchestra playing for the Syrian and Russian troops as well as the press and civilians. In the sweltering heat, the ancient communed with the modern as the evil evaporated. It remains a moment that shall not be lost on future generations.

If ever there was a symbol of the legitimate leaders of two great civilizations, Syria and Russia, coming together to reclaim the beauty of mankind from the savage Satanism of ISIS, this was one such moment. The fact that such a profoundly moving historic event was disregarded or blacked-out by the western media, is demonstrative of the fact that not only do those in charge of western media have dysfunctional heads, but that they also have no heart.

Iraq is bleeding and losing its identity because of weak leadership and poor international planning. By contrast, Syrian and Russian forces, together with other allies, are moving forward in Syria, where the war against Islamic terrorism will be won.