Syrian forces recaptured Palmyra from Daesh [ISIS/ISIL], at the end of March but the extent of the damage is still being analyzed. The ancient city of Palmyra is considered a United Natation’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage (UNESCO) site, although as we know that means nothing to terrorist organizations such as Daesh. Palmyra is the latest site of human history to be targeted by groups such as Daesh, who commit these acts in an attempt to skew history towards their mutated versions.

In the battle of ideas and beliefs, George Orwell wrote it best with: “Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.” The attacks on historical sites are often meant to exhibit locally, a terrorist organizations strength and control over a region, as they are in effect eradicating the past and inserting themselves as the predominant system. Globally, these childish acts are meant to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the terrorist controls a region and are powerful. Although, in reality, they appear as children on a temper tantrum out to destroy a toy in an exaggerating of their displeasure.

Globally terrorists have targeted historical sites as their modus operandi. Although Daesh has made it their standard operating procedure, destroying 28 historical sites as they have been cutting an unregulated swath, zigzagging through Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Some of the sites we’ve lost to Daesh and other terrorists include:

• Dair Mar Elia, a 1,400 Christian monastery in Mosul, Iraq that was destroyed by Daesh in 2014.