Scan barcode
l_hosford's review against another edition
5.0
Reading this book over the past year has been one of my most enlightening and inspiring experiences, has had a profound impact on me and has fundamentally changed how I view politics and, especially, foreign policy.
The first, most obvious impact this book has is in challenging believed or accepted realities of these 'wars' in the Middle East. The farcical nature of the claims made by the US security state across all of these conflicts are so easily swept away by even a basic understanding of how events unfolded. This is made especially powerful when his keen grasp of history lays bare that every occupying power or invader does so under the guise of 'liberation', 'democracy' and 'freedom'. The comparisons to his father's fighting in World War I share scary, depressing parallels with the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. While it does feel like a lot of the book is leading up to that disastrous moment in the history of this region, there are some very interesting insights throughout, and no regime or political leader leaves this book unscathed. The fact that Clinton and Blair have been so revered by liberal politicians and media throughout my life is disgusting after reading this book, the chapter on Iraqi sanctions in the 1990s alone. Even thinking about the amount of time adults, teachers growing up described suicide bombers as crazy, unhinged, motivated by a backwards religion is just sad. It just shows the extent people will go to to avoid any truth that might undo their own created reality. What is one of the most depressing thoughts coming out of this book is the insight into the mind of Bin Laden we get through his interviews. Placing those interviews at the start of the book was an interesting choice, because when it comes to 9/11 at the end, it almost seems like Bin Laden has been nodding in agreement throughout. While Fisk rightfully does his utmost to distance himself from Bin Laden by saying how truly terrible he is, it is hard to avoid the fact that Western forces and pro-West Arab leaders created a figure like Bin Laden through their policies and crimes against Arabs because that was his main motivating force.
Some of the most interesting insights of the book concern journalism and his critiques of Western, especially US media. He has glorious insight into the procedures that some of these big US corporations put in place to make sure that the security state gets the last word on any event involving them. The changing nature of journalism from when he started is also evident, where he describes 'pool' journalists with utter disdain and how this leads to them being viewed as combatants in these conflicts because they are indistinguishable from the soldiers and armed forces. The breakdown of the use of language in describing who was committing what atrocity in Israel/Palestine was enlightening and scholarly.
If there is one thing to leave this book with it is the voice of the people directly impacted by this imperial fantasy. This is where his clearest motivations lie and give the book a level of credibility that I don't think could ever be matched. His unrelenting desire to tell the story of children dying in hospitals hit by shrapnel, talking to people whose houses have just been crushed and recording all of the lost family members' names. These accounts undermine any discussion around 'geopolitics' or 'strategy' that tend to dominate conversations around conflicts. All war is a crime and the powerful have a right, as laid down in the Geneva Convention actually, to ensure citizens are not in the way. This does not happen and in fact civilians, while usually only thought of as important in internal conflicts, are used just as instrumentally in international ones, or those involving an invading power anyway.
While the world has lost a moving voice in the region, we can only hope that the next generation of journalists see themselves as opposing and critiquing these power structures that inevitably lead to this kind of death and destruction, and focus on the human toll of these actions. While there are still some good examples of this today, too many of his critiques of journalists are all too present today. A must read. RIP
The first, most obvious impact this book has is in challenging believed or accepted realities of these 'wars' in the Middle East. The farcical nature of the claims made by the US security state across all of these conflicts are so easily swept away by even a basic understanding of how events unfolded. This is made especially powerful when his keen grasp of history lays bare that every occupying power or invader does so under the guise of 'liberation', 'democracy' and 'freedom'. The comparisons to his father's fighting in World War I share scary, depressing parallels with the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. While it does feel like a lot of the book is leading up to that disastrous moment in the history of this region, there are some very interesting insights throughout, and no regime or political leader leaves this book unscathed. The fact that Clinton and Blair have been so revered by liberal politicians and media throughout my life is disgusting after reading this book, the chapter on Iraqi sanctions in the 1990s alone. Even thinking about the amount of time adults, teachers growing up described suicide bombers as crazy, unhinged, motivated by a backwards religion is just sad. It just shows the extent people will go to to avoid any truth that might undo their own created reality. What is one of the most depressing thoughts coming out of this book is the insight into the mind of Bin Laden we get through his interviews. Placing those interviews at the start of the book was an interesting choice, because when it comes to 9/11 at the end, it almost seems like Bin Laden has been nodding in agreement throughout. While Fisk rightfully does his utmost to distance himself from Bin Laden by saying how truly terrible he is, it is hard to avoid the fact that Western forces and pro-West Arab leaders created a figure like Bin Laden through their policies and crimes against Arabs because that was his main motivating force.
Some of the most interesting insights of the book concern journalism and his critiques of Western, especially US media. He has glorious insight into the procedures that some of these big US corporations put in place to make sure that the security state gets the last word on any event involving them. The changing nature of journalism from when he started is also evident, where he describes 'pool' journalists with utter disdain and how this leads to them being viewed as combatants in these conflicts because they are indistinguishable from the soldiers and armed forces. The breakdown of the use of language in describing who was committing what atrocity in Israel/Palestine was enlightening and scholarly.
If there is one thing to leave this book with it is the voice of the people directly impacted by this imperial fantasy. This is where his clearest motivations lie and give the book a level of credibility that I don't think could ever be matched. His unrelenting desire to tell the story of children dying in hospitals hit by shrapnel, talking to people whose houses have just been crushed and recording all of the lost family members' names. These accounts undermine any discussion around 'geopolitics' or 'strategy' that tend to dominate conversations around conflicts. All war is a crime and the powerful have a right, as laid down in the Geneva Convention actually, to ensure citizens are not in the way. This does not happen and in fact civilians, while usually only thought of as important in internal conflicts, are used just as instrumentally in international ones, or those involving an invading power anyway.
While the world has lost a moving voice in the region, we can only hope that the next generation of journalists see themselves as opposing and critiquing these power structures that inevitably lead to this kind of death and destruction, and focus on the human toll of these actions. While there are still some good examples of this today, too many of his critiques of journalists are all too present today. A must read. RIP
ninaw's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.0
I've been reading this book for so long that I'm just pleased to have finally finished it. The author is clearly incredibly knowledgable about the middle east and he weaves history, current events (or current at the time), personalities (particularly of political, resistance and religious leaders), and human tragedy together to create a compelling narrative. However, for a book this long (almost 1300 pages) and this detailed a strong structure with plenty of signposts is essential and this book just didn't have that. As a result it was often confusing, it meandered, it wasn't always apparent what time period an event was happening in or its significance in relation to other events (at least until much later). It certainly was not chronological.
The detail was also overwhelming at times (likely due to the lack of clear structure) and could undermine his points, particularly where he was strongly suspicious/critical of government actions or statements because it wasn't immediately clear that he was was basing the criticism on evidence from 30 pages back (the significance of which wasn't apparent at the time).
He was particularly strong at bringing in the human factor and exploring the sentiment and effect of the conflicts on the people at the heart of it. Usually this was the civilians but at times the military forces as well.
Although this book is a thorough exploration of conflict in the middle east between the 1970s or so and 2005, there has to be an easier way to get this information.
quech87's review against another edition
5.0
There are always at least two versions of history - first is the true version and the other one is the version of the powerful or the victorious. The tragedy of Middle East is that we have been fed on the version of the powerful, of those who have interests only in the natural resources of the region. Robert Fisk after spending 30 years in this 'troubled corner' of the world comes up with this epic book which is probably as close to reality as it gets. As expected the book has wars, tragedy, killing, invasions, holocaust, civil wars, terrorists, state sponsored killings in cold statistics. The chapter on Algerian Civil war is specially gruesome and then I had to take a break from this book. But west's ignorance of Saddam's use of Chemical weapons and atrocities of Algerian military government or the CIA backed coup in Iran shows how the west has played one player against the other for their own good but in the long term this has created hatred in the masses towards the west.
mitvan's review against another edition
5.0
The real story of the west's influence in the Middle East since the First World War. This is why we are where we are.
hcarver's review against another edition
This book is really interesting, but it's going to take me a long time.
ameliamathias's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating stories from Fisk's life as a reporter in the Middle East. More personal memoir than actual history book.
atsundarsingh's review
3.0
I feel strongly mixed about Fisk's book. On one hand, I feel conflicted about 'objectivity'; I feel that a memoir shouldn't masquerade as history, but that history is nowhere near as objective as we claim. So, I struggled reading this book to understand it's place vis a vis my own field and the work of historians and journalists in the region. On the other hand, I found Fisk to take a tone occasionally that made otherwise quite persuasive writing into bombast (try telling somewhere like Kashmir that Palestine is the *last* colonial war). While I applaud the book for being captivating, and often quite persuasive, I'm left with a little confusion. Admittedly, maybe all that's new is that Fisk is a Western journalist so much more sympathetic to his adopted homeland than his birthplace. Certainly, after reading this, I'm not short on things to think about.
lynnoleum's review
5.0
the biggest achievement in my reading history. finishing ths 1,000+ page tome enriches your understanding of the middle east from the best foreign correspondent in the world.
More...