Madam Speaker, the member's question really strikes to the heart of what we are talking about. Earlier I spoke about the example of Orwell and the whole notion of erasing history and facts, so that people have no references to go return to.
What we have seen in the war in Iraq is the culpability, particularly of the U.S. media, in ignoring, erasing, and distorting the actual record of what is happening on the ground. We have seen the North American media's culpability in denying the reality of what was done in that country, the incredible international crime that was committed in that country.
As we see the destruction of cultural goods and institutions right across Iraq, it has profound implications. First, it has profound implications for the larger community because we do not even have the references to understand what has been lost.
Second, there will be profound long term implications in a country such as Iraq because when centres of identity and centres of community are broken down chaos is created. We have the example of 20 some years of destruction in Afghanistan and the break down of the village system, the break down of their traditional cultural identity by the relentless onslaught of the Soviets which created a generation that knew nothing but terror and responded with terror.
Unfortunately, Iraq, which is an even older civilization, is now undergoing this with the U.S.