NASA's "Global Exploration Strategy" for the Moon includes Historic Preservation (but had nothing for Iraq)

135 Historic Preservation: Create international lunar heritage sites to protect the record of early human lunar activity. Create lunar heritage sites at important historical locations on the Moon, such as the Apollo landing sites. Ensure that these sites are preserved in a way that they can be appreciated in the future. Man's first contact with the Moon is an important part of the global history of humankind. Designating these sites as international lunar heritage sites would protect the record of early human lunar activity and preserve our common history. 136 Historic Preservation: Preserve an archive of life on Earth on the Moon to safeguard mankind's biological, historical, cultural, and knowledge base against catastrophic loss. Preserve an archive of life on Earth on the Moon. This archive could include an agricultural cultivar bank, a data back-up site, which would include historical, cultural, and other data, and other archives of life on Earth. Having an off-site back-up of the material of terrestrial life and the data produced by it would safeguard mankind's biological, historical, cultural, and knowledge base against catastrophic loss. In the event of a catastrophic planetary event on Earth, the remains of civilization could potentially reconstruct society as it was before the disaster. 137 Historic Preservation: Preserve regions of the Moon in their natural state to protect them from developing lunar activities. Preserve regions of the Moon in their natural state. Maintain regions of the Moon for future scientific, cultural, recreation, and other uses. Preserving regions of the Moon can protect them from the growing encroachment of lunar activities. Having areas such as these, which are relatively free of contamination from lunar activities, will enable scientific investigations without confounding influences and will preserve a pure lunar environment for humans to experience and enjoy. - From the spreadsheet (watch those spelling errors NASA!) LunarExplorationObjectives.xls From NASA's "Global Exploration Strategy" for the Moon as seen in WIRED (goes PBS Dec. 18, 2006) in "Race To The Moon For Nuclear Fuel". Why didn't the U.S. do this for Iraq before it went into the "Fertile Crescent" and "hilly flanks" of our civilization's origin?