Where is the outrage over US-Israeli destruction of historic sites? In early 2001, the Taliban  blew up  two giant Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley of  Afghanistan , which dated from the  sixth century . The world erupted in outrage at the destruction of  cultural heritage , and western media engaged in  handwringing  over the loss of statues that most people presumably had not known existed in the first place but were nonetheless symbolic of our "collective humanity".