America’s war on heritage: How culture became collateral damage
US military actions in Iraq and Syria left ancient heritage sites in ruins, museums looted, and historic cities bombed, all while oil infrastructures were protected
When the US forces invaded Iraq in 2003, they came with grand promises of democracy, freedom, and the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. But behind the slogans and political words, there was a brutal reality: the calculated destruction of a civilisation that had given birth to writing, law, and cities — the very foundation of human history.
The looting of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad, just days after the invasion, became an international symbol of cultural collapse. Over 15,000 priceless artefacts vanished into the black market, many lost forever.
Though the Ministry of Oil was heavily guarded by American troops, the museum was left undefended.
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Dr Geoff Emberling, co-editor of the Oriental Institute's Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq's Past, called it "a deliberate negligence that prioritised oil over heritage".
Iraq's ancient city of Babylon suffered even more. American and Polish troops set up a military base on top of the ruins, crushing irreplaceable archaeological layers beneath sandbags and tank tracks.
The world watched in silence as symbols of human civilisation were reduced to strategic outposts. This destruction was not a by-product of war — it was a calculated extension of it.
Irina Bokova, then Director-General of UNESCO, in 2015 condemned this by stating, "Cultural heritage became a battlefield in itself, the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage, monuments and sites, a war crime used as a tactic to spread fear and hatred."
Between 2012 and 2016, the Syrian city of Aleppo — one of the world's oldest inhabited cities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — was reduced to rubble. The Great Umayyad Mosque, with its 11th-century minaret, was reduced to dust.
The historic souks (markets) and caravans, once signifiers of life and culture in Aleppo, were destroyed by bombings and tunnel explosions. Over 33,500 buildings were damaged, and two million people were displaced.
While ISIS claimed responsibility for much of the destruction, the role of US-led airstrikes in creating the conditions for such devastation cannot be ignored. Bombs rained down in "precision strikes" that often missed their targets and obliterated civilian infrastructure and heritage sites. It was a war that showed little regard for the preservation of culture.
A 2017 report by UNESCO and UNITAR detailed that American-led coalition airstrikes were responsible for the collapse of entire regions in eastern Aleppo, destroying not just homes but centuries-old historical districts.
Why was Aleppo reduced to ruins? The official narrative was the fight against terrorism and the liberation of oppressed peoples. But beneath this was a dark reality: The same strategic interests that had dominated Iraq were at play — oil, regional influence, and geopolitical control.
The discrepancy between rhetoric and reality is obvious. While the US claimed to be spreading democracy and freedom, its military operations consistently prioritised securing oil fields and strategic locations over protecting cultural heritage.
Dr Geoff Emberling summarised and said, "The Ministry of Oil was guarded; the National Museum was left to looters. Iraq's priceless heritage was collateral damage in a war for resources, not liberation."
It is estimated that the damage to Iraq's archaeological sites and museums during and after the invasion was billions of dollars, with thousands of sites looted or destroyed, a cultural loss that could take centuries to recover from.
"The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage is a war crime; it is used as a tactic of war, a strategy of cultural cleansing."
The consequences have been catastrophic. The loss of heritage is not merely the destruction of buildings or artefacts; it is the destruction of identity, memory and history. When cultural sites are bombed, looted, or bulldozed, it is the soul of a people that is attacked.
America's "war on terror" has been, in many ways, a war on the very cultures it claimed to protect. Ancient Mesopotamian cities, the birthplace of civilisation, have been turned into wastelands.
The destruction in Aleppo is a reminder that military might, under the mask of moral intervention, often serves more to destroy than to rebuild.
