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A review by unisonlibrarian
The Age of the Warrior: Selected Writings by Robert Fisk
5.0
Robert Fisk has been a reporting from the Middle East for several decades now, first with the Times and then the Independent once Rupert Murdoch had shown too much interest in editing his pieces for the former newspaper. The majority of the writing in this collection of his articles for the Independent come from the Iraq invasion onwards to the book’s publication in 2010. Because Fisk has been a correspondent in the Arab world for so long there is a weariness in some of the reports, you get the sense that the author just wants to grab the leaders of America, the UK, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria etc etc and bang their heads together and tell them to stop bombing, killing, maiming, invading, occupying and destroying.
Robert Fisk is a go-to man for facts on the Middle East, not only his own time but the history of the area from cultural influences through the Crusades and early modern history up to the 20th Century and the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people, still unacknowledged by Turkey’s political elite. His knowledge of Arab involvement in the World Wars is comprehensive and is a renowned authority on the years following the creation of the Israeli state and the Palestinian Nakba. He writes pointedly, almost brusquely at times with his dispatches containing the horrific details of the aftermath of attacks, usually by western or western backed powers. We hear of the duplicity of the leaders of the free world, the complicity of leaders of the Arab world and the truculence of Israel’s politicians in the face of huge levels of human suffering. It is written with an even hand, and no one gets off lightly. As with all collections of journalism some of the dispatches have a dated feel and should be read in the context of the events they describe. Many of the articles have a solid prescience to them that can only come from the author’s knowledge that “we’ve been here before, and history repeats itself” as Israel tragically proves on a regular basis. This is a useful book for anyone wishing to recall the mendacity with which we were taken to war, the results of that invasion and its impact on the surrounding countries in the area and anyone who wants to know more about the historical precedents that lead our politicians to believe they have a right to interfere in other nations present and future as well as their torn pasts.
Robert Fisk is a hero of journalism and free speech, his masterwork is The Great war for Civilisation and this volume is a decent companion for that exalted tome.
Robert Fisk is a go-to man for facts on the Middle East, not only his own time but the history of the area from cultural influences through the Crusades and early modern history up to the 20th Century and the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people, still unacknowledged by Turkey’s political elite. His knowledge of Arab involvement in the World Wars is comprehensive and is a renowned authority on the years following the creation of the Israeli state and the Palestinian Nakba. He writes pointedly, almost brusquely at times with his dispatches containing the horrific details of the aftermath of attacks, usually by western or western backed powers. We hear of the duplicity of the leaders of the free world, the complicity of leaders of the Arab world and the truculence of Israel’s politicians in the face of huge levels of human suffering. It is written with an even hand, and no one gets off lightly. As with all collections of journalism some of the dispatches have a dated feel and should be read in the context of the events they describe. Many of the articles have a solid prescience to them that can only come from the author’s knowledge that “we’ve been here before, and history repeats itself” as Israel tragically proves on a regular basis. This is a useful book for anyone wishing to recall the mendacity with which we were taken to war, the results of that invasion and its impact on the surrounding countries in the area and anyone who wants to know more about the historical precedents that lead our politicians to believe they have a right to interfere in other nations present and future as well as their torn pasts.
Robert Fisk is a hero of journalism and free speech, his masterwork is The Great war for Civilisation and this volume is a decent companion for that exalted tome.