The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

CIVILISATION - IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO

THE BLOODY YEARS of Bush the Son are drawing swiftly to an end. In a matter of months, he will no longer occupy the White House and on present evidence will find his replacement to be a black-skinned Democrat - a vindication of sorts, and at last, for the strange creature that likes to call itself democracy, American-style.

The front-man for the invasion of Iraq - perhaps the worst managed imperial adventure in history - will return to the bosom of his Texan (and Saudi) friends, the remaining neo-cons will slink back to their ivory towers, and the old military-industrial complex of banks and guns and oil will go on in much the same way as before.

In the months and years that follow the demission of Bush, the record of American (and British) policy with regard to Iraq will come under intense scrutiny. It remains to be seen just what skullduggery might yet come to light, not least with regard to the trotting Whore of Fettes and his profoundly duplicitous role in the entire adventure.

But we can be rather more precise about what actually happened in Iraq, of course. A junta in America's corporate and neo-conservative foreign policy establishments saw an opportunity to use American military might in the cause of destroying Iraq, establishing in its place a postmodernist Fort Laramie for the strategic domination of the region, and so ensure preferential American access to its oil and gas resources.

For this, Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and the neo-Narodnik spectacle of the Twin Towers were timeous and highly convenient excuses. Had the venture been properly managed it might even have worked, and established US hegemony in the Middle East for the next quarter- or half-century. But it did not, has not and - according to all the present signs - will not. Iraq, certainly, along with its once glorious capital, has been destroyed: and the Middle East is more unstable than ever, and America's position there even more exposed (and expensive) than ever.

The why and the how of this murderous imperialist disaster for the people of the region is the principal subject of Robert Fisk's magisterial memoir of his thirty years covering the conflicts of the Middle East. In the shadow of Fox News (and, at times, the BBC) one hesitates to describe Fisk as a `journalist'.

After all, Western `reporting' of the seemingly endemic wars and troubles that arc from Lebanon to the far and dusty shores of Afghanistan bring no credit on what - at times - can be an honourable trade. But Fisk is indeed a journalist - and a writer and historian - of the highest quality and integrity, and his mighty epic of reportage is lyrical in its detail, savage in its judgements, and enormously and expertly informed in turn.

Certainly, the book sprawls well beyond the boundaries of its central focus to the Armenian Holocaust of 1915, to Britain's own last adventure in armed imperialism at Suez, to the bloodbath inherited by the Algerians in the wake of the French imperial venture there. Nor does Fisk omit scrutiny of the popular overthrow of that US satrap, the Iranian Shah, in the 1970s, and the terrible war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s.

But Fisk also brings his critical eye to rather more recent events in the region - the first invasion of Iraq by America and her puppets, the terrible reign of sanctions that followed there, and the post 9-11 invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. And then, of course, there is the continuing military (and demographic) time-bomb of Israel / Palestine to contend with .....

None of this, it can be said with absolute certainty, makes for pretty reading, from the story of the corrupt proto-fascist regimes kept in power by the Americans to the extensive use of depleted uranium ordnance in Bush the Father's invasion of Iraq. Naturally, the civilised Western reader will be only too aware that Fisk's allegations about the subsequent plague of tumours, gangrenes, missing limbs, child mastectomies and congenital shrunken heads can, of course, be no more than an Islamist lie.

After all, they were evasively denied by no less an authority than Douglas Henderson, Britain's then-minister for the armed forces. "The Government has not", opined this distinguished parliamentary militarist in 1998, "seen any peer-reviewed epidemiological research data on this population to support these claims and it would therefore be premature to comment on the matter".

Or what about the extensive physical destruction of the socialist and communist Lefts throughout so much of the Arab and Muslim worlds, at the bloody hands of secular-fascist and clerical-fascist regimes - a subject surely worthy of an up-to-date book in itself, and one which would doubtless be wondrously illuminated by the files of the CIA? Among other things, after all, this might help explain why so much of the anti-imperialist struggle in those worlds is in the hands of reactionary Islamists, tholed to a powerless politics of gesture and rhetoric born ineluctably from a long history of humiliation and defeat.

Nor does Fisk flinch from comment on the extraordinary lockgrip that America's Zionist lobby has on American media and political debate on Palestine, or on America's policies there (to no discernible advantage to the United States either). And the Western media does not emerge with much credit at all from Fisk's account of coverage of recent imperial adventures in the Middle East - journalists as fans with gasmasks, embedded propagandists, characterized by enormous self-importance and equally enormous ignorance, and all in thrall to that unwritten but immensely powerful code of self-censorship and `balance'.

But what does this matter in the grand scheme of civilised things? After all, when the Americans occupied Baghdad they watched all the ministries burn down (apart, of course, from the ministries of oil and the interior), along with the national library and archives and the capital's collection of priceless Korans.

In all, this book is a testament to Fisk's moral and often physical courage and energy. It is one of the great books of journalism, and one of the great books about journalism. It is also one of the great books in English about the Arab and Muslim world in the Middle East and beyond.

Civilisation caught in the act, indeed .....

ends

Anecdotes with no analysis (0/2 people found this helpful)

After plodding through four chapters of this huge book and finding only the author's personal impressions of events as they unfolded, I skipped ahead to the final chapters in search of summary and analysis. I found none. The whole book is simply a personal diary, a string of anecdotes, and nothing more.

The anecdotes are impressive, being vividly written by a man who was very close to the events he describes. I give it as many as three stars for that reason. But this is not the kind of book I wanted, at all. All I get out of it is a vague sense that all participants in the Middle East conflicts are guilty; and I would already have been willing to agree with that before reading any of the book.

A behemoth too far (0/1 people found this helpful)

This is an enormous book, and covering developments in the wider Middle East from 1915 till the 2003 Coalition invasion of Iraq.

The book doesn't really cover the whole of that time frame but rather sub-periods within. As such, it consists of seven basic sections: Interviews with Osama bin Laden, the Iran - Iraq War, Afghanistan, Algeria, the Armenian Holocaust, the Palestinian - Israeli conflict and the 91 & 03 wars with Iraq.

The canvas is written as a journalistic fly-on-the-wall account, which means that in order to get the full benefit from Fisk's writing, it is often advisable to supplement ones reading with a historical perspective. Irrespective of whether you try to develop a historical perspective, it very quickly becomes clear that there is absolutely nothing that ties these seven sections together apart from their geographic proximity, the fact that a lot of people die on each page and a somewhat feeble attempt to try and link each one of them to the participation of Fisk's father in the last 6 months of World War 1. In fact, there is so little connect between the sections that the book's publisher should have suggested that each section was published as a separate book in its own right, thereby giving Fisk the opportunity to set the story in a wider historical context. This book does not benefit from being narrowed to a defined time, place or context which hugely benefitted "Pity the Nation".

The book is also massively long and whole rainforests are wasted on uninteresting and redundant information. You read and read and read and keep on thinking "Come on, Fisky. Get on with it. Where is the story here?" Though far between, the stories are there and some are very good indeed, however they could have been produced much more powerfully on 700 pages rather than 1,300.

There is no doubt that Fisk is a controversial writer. Comments like "Typical Fisk. It is all Israel's fault" do not do the book justice and are not a fair representation of the book's message. (Less than 1/3 of the book actually deals with Palestine & Israel) Fisk readily dishes out criticism, where he thinks criticism is due. Arafat and the PLO get as much deserved criticism for its corruption, totalitarianism manipulation as Israel gets for its settlements in Palestine. Fisk's obsession is not with Israel, but with morality. His world is good or bad. Black or white. He does not have to pay the politician's price of having to prioritize how bad, bad actually is. That is what makes him interesting and why the world needs people like him. He is a fascinating writer, always worth a read, but "The Great War for Civilisation" is by no stretch his finest hour.

Interesting but painful (0/4 people found this helpful)

Robert Fisk manages to make the use of the word 'terrorist' a swear word. Soldiers defending their land are just as bad as a suicide bomber who kills women and children apparently.

I found the book annoying and gripping and the same time. His opinions on the PLO killing people were always backed up by how many the Israelis killed in the last few months. A suicide bomber killed 30 in a pizzeria, well, the Islaelis killed 40 in Gaza in a fight.

I'd recommend it, just because you need to read things that go against your accepted views. I grew up in Northern Ireland and have seen a mand blown to pieces and my home town flatten by 'terrorists'.

I'm still open minded enough to know they were just idiots who have eventualy grown up, its a shame Robert Fisk sides mostly with the idiots.

The religion thing... Islam, Catholic, all nonsense. The book drives you mad reading of the brutality and senslessness of it all. But it is a good mental exercise

Predictable (0/4 people found this helpful)

It's all Isreal's fault (apparently). This book is well-written but Robert Fisk's bias means its as partial as the views he is criticising.

The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

Robert Fisk

Reader Reviews:

CIVILISATION - IN FLAGRANTE DELICTO (2/2 people found this helpful)

Anecdotes with no analysis (0/2 people found this helpful)

A behemoth too far (0/1 people found this helpful)

Interesting but painful (0/4 people found this helpful)

Predictable (0/4 people found this helpful)

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