Tonight, tomorrow, we mark the year's anniversary of the attack and invasion of a country that i learned in World History to call Mesopotamia, the Cradle of Civilisation.  

in April of last year Arundhati Roy wrote a piece for The Guardian called "Mesopotamia.  Babylon.  The Tigris and Euphrates."  she used these words quite deliberately, to call up the magical images those words evoke in those of us who have, to whatever degree, been captivated by early history.

This is her introduction to the piece:   "How many children, in how many classrooms, over how many centuries, have hang-glided through the past, transported on the wings of these words? And now the bombs are falling, incinerating and humiliating that ancient civilisation."

i just reread the article, it is a fitting memorial for the day, worthy of attention for the first time, or the tenth.