of sledge hammers through explosives answers firepower. is it more about the money or more about the message for thm? the message is very important. because what they are doing is showing that they won t tolerate any other view of the world but their own. they are moving against christian and other religious minorities. they won t tolerate even ancient views of other religions. who buys these artifacts or remnants thereof? what buys them? how does isis make the money? isis is very smart about this. to give them strangely, credit where it is due, they are charging the money you front. allowing looters to have sort after monopoly on certain areas or issuing official looking licenses to loot and they collect 20% of the value of the antiquities found, for the items