The Rendlesham Forest Incident – or “Britain's Roswell”

The Halt Memo two-weeks after the incident:

No this isn’t an outdated recap of an event that took place back in the 40’s; but a succession of unexplained sightings of an unidentified crafts, at least one of which landed and was underscored by multiple unexplained lights in Rendlesham Forest on two separate nights in late December of 1980.  This incident occurred just outside a former Royal Air Force (RAF) station located east of Woodbridge (RAF Woodbridge) in the county of Suffolk, England, about 8 miles (13 km) east of the town of Ipswich; the base and it “twin” (Bentwaters) was being used at the time by the U.S. Air Force (until 1993).

The first significant piece of evidence regarding the incident was made available to the public by way of the memorandum displayed above via the Freedom of Information Act in 1983.  It was written by then deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles I. Halt, to Great Britain’s Ministry of Defense (MoD). The Report has since become known as the “Halt Memo”, and (photo copy near top of page) was dated January 13, 1981; the Subject Line was simply titled: “Unexplained Lights”.  

Dr. David Clarke, a consultant to Britain’s National Archives, has since investigated the background of the Halt Memo, including the “lack luster” response to it by the British Ministry of Defense.

He also interviewed the personnel involved in the incident, confirming the brief nature of the investigation performed by the Ministry of Defense, and was unable to find other evidence or reports on the event that could / should have been made by the United States Air Force or the United Kingdom; apparently nothing other than that of the Halt Memo lent credence to the incident.  In other words, both government entities have seemingly learned over the years that by ignoring unexplained events, credible witnesses to such incidents are by default deemed unreliable.

Then Deputy Base Commander of RAF Bentwaters, Lt. Col. Halt, has (he retirement a full Colonel & became Base Commander of Bentwaters) gone on record as saying that he believes he witnessed an extraterrestrial event that was “covered up”.   He served in Vietnam, Japan and Korea, before he was assigned to Bentwaters as Deputy Commander. The Rendlesham Forest incident of late December of 1980 occurred shortly thereafter, and he is the most prominent witness to events on the second night of the unexplained sightings.

In any event, one of the United Kingdom’s most significant Military related UFO incidents occurred in Rendlesham Forest located in Suffolk County on two nights in late December of 1980. 

Here’s a summary of the incident:

 

In the late evening hours of December 26, 1980 an unidentified object was tracked on radar by the “twin RAF bases” of Woodbridge and Bentwaters, on “loan” to the United States Air Force; initially, the two Air force bases were placed on Full Alert but shortly thereafter it was determined that the object, whatever it was, posed no direct threat to the bases so the Full Alert was lowered. Regardless, the “news”, continued to cause intense excitement within both locations because several witnesses had been describing the radar tracked object as having bright revolving lights which was circling in the sky just before it hovered over a nearby pine tree plantation known as Rendlesham Forest.

Dispatched on Patrol near the east gate of RAF Woodbridge that night was US Air Force security patrolmen John Burroughs and Budd Steffens, it was approximately 2:00 AM.   They spotted a strange craft and at first thought that it may be a plane doomed to crash, however they quickly concluded that the craft was slowly descending downwards and appeared to have landed in the nearby woods. They could see within a short distance, a pulsating mass of colored lights they later described as looking like a Christmas tree.

Burroughs hastily phoned the base in alarm; as it was now past 2 AM, so he assumed there should not have been aircraft in the vicinity. Within minutes, security patrol sergeant Jim Penniston was on his way by jeep, driven by Edward Cabansag.

Upon arrival, they too saw the bizarre object with lights flickering through the trees. Penniston, who took command, tried to persuade Burroughs and Steffens that a small plane had crashed and flames were raging out of control. However the two patrolmen were convinced that whatever was out there had landed; not crashed!

Budd Steffens remained at the gate while the others entered the forest on foot. There was some kind of bizarre electrical field permeating the woods and to make matters worse, radio contact with the base began to fail.  As a result, Penniston directed Cabansag to stay back near the road so they could, if necessary, use him to relay messages to base. Penniston and Burroughs then forged deeper into the forest, it was at this point the servicemen later described the air as being “alive” with energy - crackling somewhat like a thunderstorm; their arm hair stood on end, and their skin began to tingle.

With considerable physical effort the patrolmen approached the object they later pronounced as a glowing conical object hovering over a clearing in the trees.   They described it in more detail as a relatively small metallic craft; about three meters across the base and two meters high, on its side were black marks that could have been an unknown form of writing.  It illuminated the entire vicinity with a white light. Just above them a flashing beam sent out a circle of red and blue light which was apparently coming from another craft.  Regardless, the object before them appeared to be suspended in a yellow hazy like mist through which one of the men noticed what he perceived to be the vague outline of triangular shaped landing gear. 

One un-named eye witness at the scene later insisted that there were beings—possibly androids—repairing the craft which appeared to have been damaged, most likely he believed, from its descent through the trees. 

The object seemed to be fully aware of the patrol’s presence because when they began to approach closer to the craft, it began to move away from them through the trees toward a nearby farmhouse which reportedly sent “the animals their into a frenzy”.

A little after 4:00 a.m. local police were called to the scene to assist in the investigation but the police reported that the only lights they could see were those from the Orfordness lighthouse, some eight (8) miles to the east on the coast.

Shortly after daybreak on the morning of December 27^th, servicemen returned to the scene of the aforementioned craft’s “landing” site near the eastern edge of the forest and found three small impressions in a triangular pattern; and too, there were burn marks and broken branches on nearby trees; it was then determined the entire site should be subjected to intense an investigation.  

On the morning of the 28^th at 1.48 AM at least three soldiers who had ventured into the forest spotted the unknown craft again.  This team included John Burroughs (a member of the first group), Lt. Bruce Englund who reported the new sighting to Base Commander Ted Conrad  shortly thereafter, and Sergeant Adrian Bustinza—who colorfully described how “the glowing light rested on a pillar of yellowish mist and split in the middle like a rainbow produced by a prism”.

In the early morning (before day-break) of December the 28^th, deputy base commander Lt Col Charles Halt visited the site (reported as the 29^th in his Memo) with investigators—he had been in attendance to an officers’ Combat Support Group awards dinner at RAF Bentwaters when the base commander Ted Conrad told Halt “it” was back as had been reported to him by Lt. Bruce Englund.   Commander Conrad was just about to present an after-dinner speech so he asked his deputy, Lt Col Charles Halt, if he could sort out the matter. Deputy Base Commander Halt (later promoted to Lt Col Halt) gathered a team of skilled men for the foray; with them they took a Geiger counter to measure possible radiation and several other items they anticipated needing for a likely investigation. 

Once into the forest area, the investigating team’s radio contact with the base and each other began to develop static interference, similar to that experienced by the earlier group of investigators and the gas-powered arc lights illuminating their way were repeatedly failing to the point that it became necessary to send back for more.  

Upon reaching the initial landing site radiation readings were taken on the small indentations found in the frozen ground where the landing legs of the “mystery” craft had reportedly stood; they were above normal—it was some years later the radiation readings were determined to have ten times the expected background levels.  In addition, overhead branches and leaves surrounding the site were torn away and parted as if some massive object had rushed through the trees.

Then suddenly as they put it “out of nowhere all hell broke loose”.   Noises could be heard in the background as Halt cut in sharply telling his men to “slow down and take it carefully”.  Yep, the UFO was back!  Halt and his team had spotted the craft, but now the area of light resembled a huge red eye with a dark center. The group of men followed the light through the woods, crossing a farmer's field and stumbling through a small stream.

Halt’s group chased the unknown craft for more than an hour when, suddenly the object shot skywards. Soon after, tired and wet, Halt led his men home. Strange lights continued to appear above the Woodbridge base for the next several days; flashing “laser-like” beams down into the security sections of the base. Hundreds of military personnel witnessed them as did local residents such as Sarah Richardson, whose bedroom overlooked the base; she saw them as well. Richardson later described her sightings as “bands of rippling color.”

You might ask what creatures not from this earth might find so interesting about an “antiquated” (at least to them) air base.  It had long been suspected that nuclear weapons were present at RAF Bentwaters; a suspicion which was always denied by the base and the British government at the time. A little over a decade later, it was admitted that this denial was not true!

A few cynics have suggested several explanations for this remarkable event, including the eight (8) miles distant Orfordness lighthouse being seen from the forest to a sophisticated   experiment to see what the men’s reaction would be to a threat close to a nuclear base. If this is truly the case, how can the radar sightings be explained away?

Sources:

http://www.exohuman.com/wordpress/2013/07/the-rendlesham-forest-case/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_incident

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I._Halt

http://www.therendleshamforestincident.com/Co.html

http://www.therendleshamforestincident.com/The_Full_Report.php

http://www.therendleshamforestincident.com/General_Gordon_Williams.html

https://books.google.com/books?id=zykTEGeffiIC&pg=PT19&lpg=PT19&dq=commander+general+gordon+williams+at+woodbridge&source=bl&ots=P6VWvRz63i&sig=F69TNo1RCYW8SDl5UrcMyQvIaTM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=i0BaVbKjKMeWygSysYGQBw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=commander%20general%20gordon%20williams%20at%20woodbridge&f=false

Race Differences

The term “race” usually refers to a particular group of people who have some visible physical traits, such as skin color, hair texture, facial features, or eye formation in common.

The truth is that no one really knows for how long the different races have been evolving independently, but it is generally believed by the scientific community that it would be necessary to go back a million years or more to find an ancestor common to all races.

Recent events in America (2014 & 2015), strongly suggest that those few who recognize the fundamental problems with race relations our nation currently faces, almost live in an intellectual vacuum. This is because most citizens throughout the United States do not seem to identify its most dangerous internal enemy: Racial and Cultural Discontent.  It’s apparent that if the public addresses this subject at all, it is to celebrate them as signs of a new and better America.

At no point, from the first basic attempts at classifying human populations in the 17,^th  18,^th  or 19,^th centuries and into the 21^st century have scientists agreed on a specific number of races of humankind; nor the features that should be used in the identification of races, or the meaning of the term “race” itself.   Experts have suggested an array of different races varying from as little as 3 to more than 60; each based on what they have considered distinctive differences in physical characteristics alone (comprising hair type, head shape, skin color, height, eye shape and so on).

One of the more popular divisions recognizes 3 major races, namely Caucasian / White, Asian / Mongoloid — (including Native Americans), and Black / Negroid; however there is no universally accepted classification for “race”; consequently use of the term “race” has been under fire for the last few decades.

The truth is, all men, of whatever race are classified by anthropologist as belonging to

a single species: Homo sapiens.  So the differences between members of the various human races are not great, even though they do not appear to be, nor do they act like members of the same species.  Regardless, it’s safe to say that “modern humans” have to date performed poorly, especially when considering interacting with each other.

In the prehistoric past, different races, and sub-races, probably avoided cross-breeding and behaved as if they were different a species. This concept is based upon the simple fact that “in nature”, animals that are no more different from each other than are northern Europeans and southern Europeans never breed with each other. You might argue that the Mule is an obvious exception, but if not for domestication by human-kind, horses would not mate with donkeys.

You might be somewhat surprised to learn that skin color is the least important way in which the races differ! Actually, races vary in skin color because of different levels of melanin (also called pigment) production. Each race has approximately the same number of melanin-making cells, but they differ in how productive the cells are.

Yep, melanin is the substance that gives the hair, skin, and the iris of the eyes their natural color (it also gives color to, feathers, and scales).   In humans, those with darker skin have higher amounts of melanin. By contrast, those with less pigment / melanin

have lighter or fairer skin coloring . . .  Frankly, anyone who has seen an albino African knows how trivial a difference in skin color is to race.

Color does have one biological effect tough: 3.5 times as much ultraviolet light from the sun passes through the skin of Whites as that of Blacks. Simply put, Lighter skin is typical to those who evolved in the northern regions while darker skin, which protects against the sun’s heat, developed in parts of Africa.

Another noticeable difference in appearance especially in many East African peoples include elongated limbs and bodies that dissipate heat more freely.   

As for Asians, who evolved in a much cooler northern climate; their bodies are typically of a smaller structure; they usually have thick, dark hair, with an eye fold that gives them their classic almond-shaped eyes — this characteristic is thought to have evolved so as to diminish glare from snow and ice not uncommon to the region.   Further, the virtual absence of facial hair on an Asian’s face indicates that back in the day when it mattered, condensation from a man’s breath would not freeze on his beard and therefore chill his face.  And no, Asians are not really yellow! See:

Not all racial differences are not so easily explained.  For example, for reasons unknown, all races do not smell alike. Blacks and Whites have strong, but differing smells, while many Asians have scarcely any smell at all. Koreans seldom have odor-producing glands in their arm-pits and Japanese have only a few.  Little wonder that when the 19^th century Japanese encountered Europeans they found them rank smelling.

It’s a little known fact that Blacks / Africans produce identical twins twice as frequently as Whites / Europeans — who in turn have identical twins twice as frequently as Asians. And too, Blacks have shorter gestation periods than Whites or Asians. ‘Know what you’re thinking, but shorter gestation seems to be a characteristic of blacks that is independent of social status or access to medicine.

Alcoholism appears to strike the races at different rates. Asians (and American Indians to whom they are related) react more adversely than whites do to alcohol. More Asians than whites show an allergic reaction to alcohol and therefore may not drink as much and many American Indians seem to have a biological predisposition to alcoholism. Hence, the old western movie cliché suggesting Indians are more susceptible to intoxication than Cowboys. 

Curiously, Asians are twice as likely as Whites or Blacks to suffer from motion sickness.

Blacks are twice as likely as Whites to develop hypertension or high blood pressure.   One cause for high blood pressure among Blacks may be their relative inability to secrete sodium, so a salty diet would be more hazardous for Blacks than for Whites or Asians.

It has long been known that blood transfusions and organ transplants work best between people of the same race. In fact, until World War II, stocks of blood were routinely segregated by race. Classification by race was terminated when it was determined to be “politically incorrect,” however blood banks are beginning to re-institute segregation for obvious medical advantages.

Long the subject of coarse speculation; male members of the races do appear to differ in the size of their sex organs. The best data seems to have been gathered in a 1979 study that actually took measurements and found that popular myths are correct: male Blacks are better endowed than Whites and Whites are better endowed than Asians.  On a somewhat related note, Whites are estimated to produce twice the number of spermatozoa per day as Asians do.

Many attempts have tried to discredit the evidence established in a 1984 study which allegedly established the intelligence levels of the three primary races.   It reported the results of a survey of 20,000 human skulls showing that the average size of the brain case in a typical Asian is 1380 Cubic centimeters (cc); in Whites its 1362 cc; and in Blacks its 1276 cc. Perhaps nothing denounces this flawed theory more than a 1989 study which determined that brain size in humans have only a 0.3% positive correlation with intelligence.

In years past it was once universally accepted that races differ in intelligence, and too, the study of physical differences was once entirely respectable. Some 19^th century biologists, though, hoped to find justifications for slavery, so can you believe it, not all were good scientists.      Today (2015) the best evidence suggests that races differ significantly only in such things as maturation rate, bone density, susceptibility to disease, and perhaps personality.

The bottom line is that any two humans; red, black, white, etc. are nearly 99.9% identical in terms of their DNA sequences.   On the other hand, during the past several years, a new type of genetic variation has been studied extensively in humans called “Copy Number Variants” (CNVs), which are DNA sequences representing another important class of genetic variation and contributes a whopping additional 0.1% difference, on average, between individuals; so make that 99.8% identical.

If you are among the few who will admit there are still racial problem in America, you might consider reading the 1996 novel by Carl T Rowan: “The Coming Race War in America: A Wake Up Call” therein he warns that unless we act now, this country (USA) will by the end of the millennium have the same level of bloody racial strife that mired South Africa at the height of apartheid. In his chapter titled “How to Prevent Armageddon”, Rowan recommends a massive federally enforced disarmament program, speedy prosecution of racist cops, and early and massive interventions into the lives of underclass children— he suggests paying for this massive undertaking with the money now being earmarked for new prisons.

Before you simply dismiss Rowan’s viewpoint, you might first have a look-see at a few of his credentials: In 1961, Rowan was appointed Deputy Secretary of State by President John F. Kennedy. 

The following year, he served as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Rowan was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Finland in 1963.   In 1964, Rowan was appointed director of the United States Information Agency (USIA) by then President Lyndon B. Johnson. In serving as director of the USIA, Rowan held a seat on the National Security Council.      

Carl Rowan was a fair minded individual whose advice was persuasive and well-balanced – in other words he always came across as the voice of reason; in the very least he was a well-known and highly decorated journalist. His columns were published in more than one hundred newspapers throughout the United States. His name appeared on former President Nixon’s “political opponent’s master list”, now regarded as a back-handed complement. Not only was Rowan a 1995 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his commentaries, he is the only journalist in history to win the Sigma Delta Chi medallion for journalistic excellence for three successive years.  Before he departed those of us among the living in late September of 2000 he had served at a higher level than any other Black American in U.S. government history.

All you need do is follow the disturbing events from Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland to conclude that he was at least right to some extent. If then, surely now. The problems associated with race is a distributing factor and race diversity is undoubtedly here to stay, regardless of whether you are tolerant of the situation or a die-hard racist; let’s hope it’s not too late to deal with circumstance in a civilized manner!

Sources:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/488030/race      

http://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/how-many-major-races-are-there-in-the-world/

http://www.amren.com/ar/1992/12/index.html#cover

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-melanin.htm

http://www.nchpeg.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142&Itemid=64

http://www.amazon.com/The-Coming-Race-War-America/dp/0316759805

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rowan

http://gfx.prowordpress.org/cartoon-kids-in-different-traditional-costumes-people-106873

http://www.clipartbest.co/triathlon-clipart/

http://www.ecoglobe.ch/museum/e/timeline.htm

http://www.afropunk.com/profiles/blogs/interview-with-albino-model

“Between Two Rivers”

Ancient Mesopotamia

 . . . 3200 BC . . .

. . . The First Civilization Develops . . .

They Called Themselves—Sumerians

The Ancient Greeks called her Mesopotamia, she is often called the “Cradle of Civilization” because it is believed to have been the very first fixed society established by human-kind; geographically speaking, she lies in the Middle Eastern area of the globe, specifically between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers, both of which flow into the Persian Gulf, a land mass corresponding to modern-day Iraq, the northeastern section of Syria, to a much lesser extent southeastern Turkey and a smidgen of southwestern Iran.

            

A 1967 fossil site (known as Omo I) near the Omo River in South-western Ethiopia is the oldest evidence to date (2015) that proves the earliest “modern humans” roamed parts of East Central Africa about 195,000 years ago. They eventually wandered to “the land between two rivers” located in the far away Middle East, and once their set about establishing Mesopotamia.     The most likely route is depicted by the thin white line on the map below:

Based upon what anthropologists have learned about Ancient Mesopotamia and South-western Ethiopia, common sense suggests that early man likely choose to migrate those thousands of miles in an effort to maintain a suitable supply of food following changes in the climate and the landscape of the region of Southcentral Africa. It’s likely they trekked north through modern day Ethiopia, then continued north through all of Sudan; sticking with the program they advanced north through most of Egypt.  Once reaching the northern area of Egypt, early mankind was effectively blocked by the Mediterranean Sea and as it is generally believed he had not yet mastered reliable water craft; rather than venture west into modern day Libya, he wandered east toward the rising sun into modern day Israel.  Once there he continued east crossing all of Jordan into Western Iraq. Having entered modern day Iraq, he continued east until he crossed the Euphrates River.  For reasons unknown, there he stopped and proceeded to go about setting up house-keeping, farming, inventing the wheel, developing writing, and creating the world’s first cities.

This land mass would become known as “the Fertile Crescent”, home of the Mesopotamian Empire. Exactly why they stopped there, the available record has not shown; perhaps attempts at crossing the Tigris River was simply too difficult since it was rougher and faster flowing than the Euphrates or after being on the “road” for, by most counts, more than 100,000 years they were simply exhausted.    

 

Regardless, “the land between two rivers” was filled with wildlife and edible vegetation making it an attractive area for early man-kind to finally settle down in.  Many anthropologists believe that early humans didn’t developed civilization there until as late as 3500 BC while others have suggested that Mesopotamia was permanently settled hundreds of years earlier, sometime between 5500 BC and 4000 BC.

Nonetheless, throughout Mesopotamia, the land was very fertile making it suitable for the development of farming.  In the Northern region, there are many rivers and streams feed by the surrounding mountains. Generally speaking the northern area consists of mountains, hills, and plains.  Included in the bargain, there’s a rainy season in the northern region too that helps water the soil, which made the area ideal for early agriculture.    In contrast, the southern region, which became known as Sumer, is much hotter (often 110° in summer months) and dryer.  Surprisingly it’s made up of marshes; wide, flat, barren plains, but mostly dusty desert.  Wouldn’t you know it, the desert dust was fertile and the two large rivers were perfect for the development of irrigation. 

Not un-like today, in ancient times, some resources in this “ideal” region were scarce or even absent; this encouraged trade within the region and beyond.  Sustained by lucrative trade relationships with its neighbors coupled with nearly perfect agricultural conditions, Mesopotamia grew to become a powerful kingdom.  

Sounds a lot like this “Fertile Crescent” had all the right stuff that, and if given sufficient time, would grow into an empire capable of forever leading the world; then and now!

But surprise, surprise, as fate would have it, the entire Mesopotamian Empire would eventually fail, primarily because the region was destined to be invaded and occupied repeatedly throughout recorded history.

A contributor to collapse particularly in southern Mesopotamia where irrigation was essential could be described as a freak of nature: You see the rivers were higher in elevation than the surrounding fertile plains and desert; this happenstance allowed water for irrigation to flow easily into the farming fields by gravity alone. Once the water was on the fields, it could not readily drain away because the fields were lower than the rivers. So practicality dictated that  simple evaporation be utilized as part of the irrigation process, this not only left dissolved mineral salts behind, but also drew salts upward from lower levels of the soil. In this manner, over a long period of time, by about 2300 B.C., the soil became toxic and could no longer support crops; so, farmed food production in Mesopotamia was reduced to a tiny fraction of what it had been. Many fields became essentially useless and were abandoned.

Aside from unsuccessful long term farming techniques, Mesopotamia was destined to be over-run and repeatedly conquered throughout history by invading clans, latter day empires, and religious movements which prevented the advancements in living standards you might expect from a society that appeared to be blessed with such a promising future.  

Following is an abbreviated sequence of major assaults attempting to describe this early society which, by most accounts, failed miserably in maintaining a long term progressive peaceful civilization:

Mesopotamia  was first over-run and occupied by the  Akkadian Empire (1^st invasion) in 2340 BC who built an domain stretching over most of the Sumerian city-states and extending as far away as modern day Lebanon. Perhaps their paramount achievement was the establishment of their capital city, Babylon, which was the commercial and cultural center of the Middle East for almost two thousand years.  The Akkadian empire lasted for some 150 years, before slowly disintegrating and being overrun by various tribes from the north.

By 2125 BC, the Sumerian city of Ur (2^nd takeover) in southern Mesopotamia rose up in revolt and overcame the remnants of the Akkadian Empire, resulting in the renewal of Sumerian city-states.  However the last Sumerian dynasty fell around 2000 BC, Mesopotamia then drifted into conflict and chaos for nearly a hundred years.

Around 1900 BC, a group called the Amorites (3^rd invasion) managed to gain control of most of the Mesopotamian region; which lasted until 1600 BC.

Roaring into history from mysterious origins were the Hittites, (4^th occupation) they would rule a great empire that stretched from Mesopotamia to modern day Syria and Palestine from 1600 BC to 717 BC.   The Hittites were the most successful of the new invaders to the area; in large part because they were the first group of people to utilize iron weapons and advanced chariots. However they didn’t control the center of Mesopotamia or the city of Babylon for very long before another Indo-European people . . . The  Kassite’s, (5^th conquest) invaded Mesopotamia; the first invasion by horseback. They rushed in and conquered a large part of Mesopotamia in the early 1500s and began what would become a 500-year reign in Babylon; here they dominated the center of Mesopotamia both militarily and commercially.   Unfortunately history knows very little about the Kassite’s except that their conquerors claimed they were first class barbarians and savages.

The great Indo-European kingdoms had been weakened by the incessant troubles of war and invasion . . . So the Assyrian Empire (6^th takeover) recognizing the weakness, seized control in 911 BC.

Then the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) — (7^th invading group) gained control about 300 years later in 610 BC.   You may recall, their claim to fame was in 597 BC, shortly after the Chaldeans conquered Jerusalem they forced, possibly as many as 10,000 members of the Jewish population, to relocate from Jerusalem to the city of Babylon which was the capital of the Chaldean empire. This deportation marked the beginning of the “Exile” in Jewish history.   

Eventually the independence of Mesopotamia was brought to an end by the Achaemenian Persian Empire, or the “first Persian Empire” who overpowered Babylon in 539 BC.  Thereafter the region between the two rivers became, for the next 1,000 years or so, a province within a string of foreign empires - including the first Persian Empire who were Iranians, so named because they hailed from the Persian Gulf region; then came the Hellenistic Greeks, the Parthians (more Iranians), and finally the Sassanians (also Iranians) who survived more than 400 years. Fact is, they were the last Iranian empire before the Muslim conquests, which brought a temporary collapse to the Sassanian Empire in 633 AD; the Muslims soon lost their holdings to Iranian counter attacks but a second Muslim invasion began in 636 AD which led to the permanent end of Sassanian control in the region.

The purpose of this rather dull exercise in Mesopotamia’s nearly consistent state of conflict has been to demonstrate that historically, there are more elements at play than simple differences in “religious politics” of the region. 

Actually some folks might argue that each “defeated intruder” to the region had grown complacent or had developed a false sense of security, therefore inadvertently welcoming invasion, which resulted in a negative impact on potential cultural growth and development.   Others have said the region benefited in in some small way with each invading group; simply put, these folks might argue that some sort of advancement was realized with each conquest.  Examples include: Iron weaponry and the introduction of horses which must have improved transportation.

Yes, it’s undeniable that with the inception of Islam, founded by “The Prophet” Mohamed in 622 AD, hostilities throughout Mesopotamia and the Middle East Region in general became, shall we say, an acceptable “way of life”; nevertheless, repeated invasions, wars & conquests of Mesopotamia were commonplace prior to the introduction of Islam.  

These Islamic believers are generally called Muslims; they total about 1,126,000,000 (83% Sunni; 16% Shiite) throughout the region; a majority of whom believe redemption includes faith, good works, and prayer 5 times a day. Muslims, like Jews and Christians, have only one God (Allah); and true believers unfortunately are permitted to kill for Allah . . . A sure method of madness that will insure many, many more failures.

The people of Mesopotamia have had more than a few golden opportunities to get things right and lead the rest of the world, however as the “Comparative Time Line” depicted below reflects, so have other noteworthy societies:

 

Sources . . .

https://ancientenvironments.wikispaces.com/Mesopotamia+Seven?responseToken=d79cfdb73d53979b6c6318b6fefc4632

http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/geography.html

http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_4.htm

http://www.answers.com/Q/Why_did_early_humans_migrate

http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/Staff/Hermansenjoel/Timeline%20of%20Mesopotamian%20Civilizations.htm

http://12.000.scripts.mit.edu/mission2014/solutions/modernized-irrigation

http://www.learner.org/interactives/collapse/mesopotamia.html

http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/0054-hittite-empire.php

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa53

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasanian_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Persia#Second_invasion_of_Mesopotamia_.28636.29

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/muslims-adhere-to-different-islamic-sects.html

http://tgsfree4allinfo.blogspot.com/2012/08/world-religions-brief-summary.html