Herbert Muller, in The Loom of History, has this to say of the remarkable growth and sophstication of the early Moslem world: "the Arabs within a century had set up in Damascus a civilized court far in advance of contemporary Rome. In the next century Baghdad was thronged with poets, scholars, and wits while Charlemagne and his court, as Professor Hitti remarked, were 'still dabbling in the art of writing their names.' Moslems later created other centers of civilization, as at Cairo and Cordoba, that rank among the great cities of history." The "Baghdad Hillbillies" of the
Bush administration (sic) didn't consider protecting the Iraqi capital's universities or museums from the destruction and looting that "Shock and Awe" unleashed; "stuff happens" was Don Rumsfeld's comment on the mayhem.
