A Revelation About Human Rights and the 'War on Terror'
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ECO-JOURNALISM AND SECURITY JON STEPHENSON is a New Zealand foreign correspondent who has reported extensively from the Middle East. A revelation about human rights and the ‘war on terror’ The Great War for Civilisation: The Con- quest of the Middle East, by Robert Fisk. London: Harper Collins, 2005. 1366pp. ISBN 184115007X (cloth) the author inherited from his father. INCE 9/11 and the US-led in- In 17 months after that war, Britain Svasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and France drew the frontiers of British journalist Robert Fisk has Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia as well built a huge following as a staunch as much of the Middle East. critic of George W. Bush’s ‘war on As the dust jacket tells us, ‘Fisk terror’. But Fisk’s cogent—often con- has spent his entire career watching troversial—analysis of American for- the people within these borders die’. eign policy and Western meddling This book is his ‘passionate outcry and mendacity in the Middle East is against the lies and deceit that have nothing new: based in Beirut, he has sent soldiers to their deaths and killed reported for 30 years on conflicts tens of thousands of men and women from Algeria to Afghanistan. —Arab, Christian and Jew—over the The Great War for Civilisation past century.’ examines the modern history of this The length of the tome has been region, taking its title from the words criticised, and there is no denying it inscribed on the 1914-18 war medal could have used a closer edit. How- 200 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 12 (2) 2006 ECO-JOURNALISM AND SECURITY ever, Fisk has gone through hell to Fisk’s concern is not just for key report from the messy states created themes—or actors—but ordinary by the victors of World War I, and he people who are caught in events be- has a lot to say. Above all, he wants yond their control. to remind us we can’t switch off his- One is his father Bill, who, as an tory—that understanding the present officer, declined to take part in the means understanding and learning execution of an Australian soldier from the past. convicted of murder. So, as Fisk has Take Iraq. Fisk cites a proclama- said, the book is also about refusal: tion made by General Stanley Maude when the British invaded in 1917 (p. [R]efusal to obey orders; refusal to 172). ‘Our armies do not come into accept the narrative of events laid your cities and lands as conquerors down by our governments and our or enemies, but as liberators.’ Ring a military people, especially when bell? they’re going to invade other people’s countries (Fisk, 2005). Then, when a revolt began a few years later in Fallujah, the Brits laid It is at times a depressing read. What much of the city to waste. Sound fa- happens when injustice reigns or or- miliar? As the saying goes, those who ders are executed uncritically is re- forget history are doomed to repeat counted through page after grueling it. page of bloodshed, duplicity and de- Fisk himself has a PhD in the ceit. Western leaders chasing oil or subject, yet The Great War for Civi- hegemony emerge with little more lisation is written in prose that makes credit than the Arab dictators they the extensive—often disturbing— armed or helped to power. detail come alive. Packed with anec- Unsurprisingly, Fisk’s depiction dotes as well as analysis, this is of the situation in the Middle East has ground-up history—not the work of been described by some as exces- an armchair academic. sively negative. Others complain he His reports from Soviet-occupied fails to offer a vision for a better fu- Afghanistan are extraordinarily vivid. ture. Equally captivating are his encoun- The author might reply that re- ters with men like Ayatollah cent events in Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq Khomeini and Osama bin Laden. fully justify the gloomy portrait he But while the book ranges from has painted of the region. Hope is the Armenian genocide to the Israeli- hard to find—especially when one Palestinian conflict and beyond, PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 12 (2) 2006 201 ECO-JOURNALISM AND SECURITY considers the intractable nature of the More problematic is Fisk’s cri- Israel/Palestine problem or the con- tique of the West’s Middle East sequences of America’s looming con- policy, condemned by some as unin- frontation with Iran. formed and biased. It is hard to find As for answers, Fisk insists that evidence to support the first allega- most of them lie in the past: that with tion, but the claims of bias raise an regard to the current Iraq insurgency, important issue. for instance, the Anglo-US ‘Coali- C.S. Lewis once wrote that what tion’ should not have launched this we learn from experience depends on ‘frivolous, demented conflict’ in the the kind of philosophy we bring to first place. experience, but Fisk rejects the sug- Can the peoples of the Middle gestion he views evidence through an East escape the history that we and anti-American (or anti-Israeli) prism. our Western forefathers have shaped He says he is against extremism for them these past 100 years? Fisk whether it comes from the mosque or is doubtful. ‘History—a history of in- the White House, and that his views justice—cloaks them too deeply.’ are based on the facts —not the other A less-than-adequate response, way round. perhaps. Yet simplistic solutions to Lewis’ warning also stands for the mess that is the Middle East the reader. If you see the West—and would not have improved this book. America in particular—as a shining It would, however, have ben- city atop a hill and think those resist- efited from greater attention to detail. ing the ‘Coalition’ in Iraq are all ‘ter- As Oliver Miles has pointed out in rorists’ and ‘evil-doers’, then Fisk’s the Guardian, there are a disappoint- book is not for you. ing number of errors—some trivial, However, if you are curious some serious—which more rigorous about history and the ‘war on terror’ fact checking would have readily un- and suspect a disregard for the rights covered. and suffering of others is not confined Moreover, the bibliography is to Arab despots or Muslim extrem- idiosyncratic and the index far from ists, then The Great War for Civilisa- comprehensive; the shortage of pho- tion will be a revelation. tos (intended to keep the price down) is also unfortunate. Hopefully, some Reference of these problems will be remedied Fisk, R. (2005). Interview with author, October. in future editions. 202 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 12 (2) 2006.