This vandalism is a sheer act of hatred. You destroy the history of a people, you also destroy its soul. Basic psychological warfare.

Tom is right, it is an attack on civilization, on humanity.

We in the West are colluding with this if we don't speak up. We are lucky to still have some capacity to denounce our guilty governments for financing these bandits, to voice our solidarity for the people of Syria and to let them know that we are not falling for the official BS. IMHO, unless we are dealing with a personal crisis or life-or-death situation, we have no excuse for not speaking up.

As far as ISIS is concerned yes, they are paid mercenaries. They are also low-lives, because only a low-life would destroy such magnificent works that have come down to us from past civilizations.

I am going to go out on a limb here and risk to be unpopular because it isn't PC, however it needs to be said. There is a tendency to not mention Islam as one of the drivers of the ISIS phenomenon, and I think it is a mistake. Islam, since its inception has been a destroy-and-conquer religion. The Islamic State does have a scorched earth strategy, and I think it includes metaphorically scorching any cultural heritage that interferes with Allah's dominion. The blood-sacrifice that occurred in Palmyra was meant to traumatize a population and soil a collective cultural history the way pig's blood renders a place haram.

The concert that Tom mentioned was instrumental in cleansing the site. More will probably have to be done to restore it to its rightful place, and I hope that once the hostilities are over, it will then be raised back to its former glory for the sake of humanity.