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Absolutely, lots of issues there beyond just destroying things--taking them out of context etc. I just find the destruction, particularly in situ, really grating. Obviously, it's just war, and most of what we find in the ground has been touched by war, but I like having a consensus, however fragile, that we still need this stuff to piece our history together a bit more. When that consensus is shattered again by some idiots living out a violent misconception, it's just an unhappy history repeating. You do wonder if we'll ever manage not to make that sort of history repeat.
Oliver Schick
As an ex-archaeologist truly tragic, but something which happens irrespective of whichever era of history or ideology.
Which prompts the question as to what's more important - the physical object,find & record or its documentation.
Normally defacing the icons of your predecessors has satisfied tyrants but that leads to objectifying sacred objects into prestige exhibition pieces sold for badly interpreted consumption.
Interestingly the heritage / museum / antiquities sector is struggling to cope with this issue as their sources of artefacts aren't exactly the purest and they are reticent to share their find sources. And yet buyers are having a field day with Libyan and other nations civil society breakdown - all to be seem in a headline exhibition in the west when things settle down. £18.50 + corporate sponsors.