Abraham and the City of Ur

Of course Ur is real - haven't you read Gilgamesh? The Euphrates used to flow near the city walls. It was the center of Sumerian worship of Nanna, the moon God (replaced by Sin, the moon Goddess, in Babylonian tradition). While there is no archaeological evidence of Ur being the ancestral home of Abraham, Ur of the Chaldees is cited in Gen. 11:27-32 as being where Abraham was from. The Chaldeans, however, only settled in Ur around 900 BC, but lets not bother with biblical nitpicks here Ur itself is ancient - founded around 4000 BC - and was one of the most prosperous ancient city-states and heart of the Sumerian civilization (often viewed as the birthplace of modern civilization, although the Indus river civilization was equally ancient, as were several Chinese civilizations). It began its decline after falling under Persian control; by the 4th century BC, it was almost forgotten.You are standing, in the picture, in front of the Ziggurat of Nanna. It was discovered and partially excavated in the mid 1800s by the British; they resumed and finished earlier this century (naturally, before the Iraqis kicked them out ).I didn't know you were over in Iraq. Take care of yourself out there!

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"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

So are you planning to get out of the military when you get back? And if so, are you at risk of being put under a stop-loss order? They're really short of troops right now; they've even been getting ready to call up the ready reserve (there was a big issue about how the Pentagon has been using IRS records to locate ready reserve members, and has been threatening that if members don't come forward on their own, they'll send them straight to Afghanistan or Iraq; a number have even been threatened that if they don't reenlist, they'll get deployed as such).What's your MOS, out of curiousity? I have a friend who's a 91k (medical lab tech). He joined expecting to be working stateside, but they're moving him to Fort Bragg, and he's worried they're going to put him in a unit that's going to Iraq. I haven't heard from him since he told me that.This message has been edited by Rei, 09-22-2004 12:58 PM

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"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

Ah, you're air force That makes a difference - I'm not too familiar with them. Ironically, my only familiarity with the acronym AFSC is the "American Friends Service Committee", a quaker organization whose main focus is antiwar It's good you're in a nice part of the country. And yeah, I can imagine a couple creative ways to get out if you so chose. Of course, it's kinda odd that you're counting down the time 'till you're back stateside, but planning to stay in the service. Anyways, here's to hoping that your region stays calm.

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"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."