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is first of all a book about war -- in particular, the wars
that have scarred the Middle East, from Afghanistan to Algeria,
throughout the author's long career as a correspondent for
the London Times and then the Independent. It switches back
and forth across the 20th century in a way that seems driven
more by stream of consciousness than by any linear design,
and, as befits its topic, it is a book of almost unremitting
violence. The author presents himself both as unflinching
witness and implacable judge of the events he recounts, for
he believes that he is telling a story of unrelenting perfidy
and betrayal -- in part a story of Middle Easterners being
betrayed by themselves and their leaders, but mostly one of
the Middle East being betrayed by the power, greed and arrogance
of the West.
Fisk has thrown himself into the fiery pit time
after time, often at grave personal risk -- Afghanistan at
the beginning of the long struggle against the Soviets, the
bloodbath of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, the civil war in Algeria
after 1991, the second Palestinian intifada since the fall
of 2000. When he is not personally in the midst of conflict
and destruction, he evokes them, as in his lengthy discussion
of the Armenian deportations and massacres of World War I
or (in a different register) his treatment of the shah of
Iran's prisons and torture chambers.
However Fisk regards himself, he is at bottom
a war correspondent, and the fabric of his book is woven largely
from his battlefield reporting. Fisk's writing on war is vivid,
graphic, intense and very personal. Readers will encounter
no "collateral damage" here, only homes destroyed
and bodies torn to shreds. At times, as one horror is heaped
upon another, it all seems too much to absorb or bear.
That intensity is both the book's great strength
and one of its principal weaknesses. After reading it, no
one can hide from the immense human costs of the decisions
made by generals and politicians, Middle Eastern or otherwise.
But Fisk portrays the Middle East as a place of such unrelieved
violence that the reader can hardly imagine that anyone has
enjoyed a single ordinary day there over the past quarter-century.
That picture is a serious distortion. Life in the region is
far from easy, but in spite of endemic anxiety and frustration,
most Middle Easterners, most of the time, are able to get
on tolerably well. Fisk says little about more abstract, less
violent issues such as economic stagnation, the complexities
of political Islam or the status of women. This gap is not
a weakness in itself -- Fisk is writing about different themes
-- but readers need to be aware that, despite its staggering
length, this book is not The Complete Middle East.
It may well be The Complete Robert Fisk, however.
It is full of autobiographical reminiscences about the author's
troubled but intense relationship with his father, Bill; indeed,
that relationship provides the book's title. The elder Fisk
had been awarded a campaign medal for his service in France
in 1918, and the medal (which he bequeathed to his son) was
inscribed with the motto "The Great War for Civilisation."
The bitter irony of that motto is underscored by another gift,
this one from the author's grandmother to his father -- a
boy's novel, Tom Graham, V.C., which recounts the adventures
of a young British soldier in Afghanistan in the late 19th
century. For the author, both the medal and the novel symbolize
the West's arrogant and destructive intrusion in the Middle
East throughout the last century.
If this is a book about war, it is equally a
book about the hypocrisy and indifference of those in power.
Fisk is an angry man and more than a little self-righteous.
No national leader comes off with a scrap of credit here;
he regards the lot of them with contempt, if not loathing.
Among the men in charge -- whether Arab, Iranian, Turkish,
Israeli, British or American -- there are no heroes and precious
few honorable people doing their inadequate best in difficult
situations. Jimmy Carter is lucky to escape with condescension,
King Hussein of Jordan with a bit better than that. Fisk is
not fond of the media either (though he grants some exceptions);
CNN and the New York Times are particular targets of his scorn
for what he sees as their abject failure to challenge the
lies, distortions and cover-ups of U.S. policymakers. Only
among ordinary people, entangled in a web of forces beyond
their control, does Fisk find a human mixture of courage,
cowardice, charity and cruelty!
Given the present state of things in the Middle
East, one is tempted to agree with him. The mendacity and
bland pomposity of the suits and talking heads, both Western
and Middle Eastern, are infuriating to anyone who has any
direct knowledge of what is going on there. Again, however,
there is a problem: Fisk excoriates politicians for the awful
suffering they have imposed on the peoples of the Middle East,
but he never seriously asks why they make the decisions they
do or what real alternatives they might have. It is all very
well to flog Western and Middle Eastern leaders for their
ignorance, moral blindness, lust for power, etc. That might
instill shame and guilt (though it rarely does), but it provides
no serious principles or criteria that serious policymakers
might use to develop something better.
In short, The Great War for Civilisation is
a book of unquestionable importance, given Fisk's unmatched
experience of war and its impact in the contemporary Middle
East and his capacity to convey that experience in concrete,
passionate language. Still, novices will find themselves both
overwhelmed by the book's exhaustive detail and hard put to
follow the author's leaps across countries and decades. The
Great War for Civilisation is also a deeply troubling book;
it may well confirm the conviction of many that the Middle
East is incurably sunk in violence and depravity and that
only a fool would imagine it could ever be redeemed. As tragic
as the last three decades have been, there are different lessons
to be learned -- one must hope so, at least.
Reviewed by Stephen Humphreys
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
All Customer Reviews
5 out of 5 - Dec 20, 2006
I first became aware of Robert Fisk (I am not
a keen follower of English journalism) after listening online
to a talk Fisk gave a year ago, which is essentially the foreword
to this book. His strident, urgent yet tender voice would
not leave me and it was with this voice ringing in my mind
that I read "The Great War for Civilisation"
This book should be obligatory reading for all
those with even a passing interest in 20th century history.
Here is a first hand account of events which have shaped our
present and will continue shaping our increasingly bleak future.
It is essential that we are aware of the forces behind the
news headlines and Robert Fisk does just that while "keeping
it real", staying on the ground, among the people, the
victims and survivors of horrific slaughter. This book is
essential reading because the author does not flinch from
the horror, and miraculously (and here is where Fisk climbs
head and shoulders above the competition) he does so with
extreme impartiality. If there's one thing the reader will
come away with after reading this massive tome is that all
sides have their hands dipped in the blood of the innocent,
west, north, south, east, christian, muslim, jew, kurd, shia,
sunni, white house, downing street, saddam hussein and khomeni,
arafat, turkey etc etc... the list goes on and on... a depressing
yet strangely empowering read.
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