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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Fisk's Latest Book Refutes The Official Narrative Of History Fisk's Latest Book Refutes The Official Narrative Of History Posted: 2005/10/12 From: Dabrowska Veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk wrote his latest book "The Great War for Civilisation - The conquest of the Middle East" to refute the narrative of history that is laid down by prime ministers, ministers and 'our betters' and to constantly challenge authority. Veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk wrote his latest book "The Great War for Civilisation - The conquest of the Middle East" to refute the narrative of history that is laid down by prime ministers, ministers and 'our betters' and to constantly challenge authority. Fisk was speaking about the book in London recently at an afternoon lecture organised by Bookmarks: the Socialist Bookshop. "The best thing a journalist can do is to be the first writer of history, to be on the scene, to tell the truth so no one can say 'we didn't know, no one told us'. Monitoring the centres of power is probably the best definition of what a journalists job should be", Fisk emphasised. His lecture began, as it ended, with a standing ovation from the admiring, but not uncritical audience. Fisk recalled how during WW1 his father was ordered to execute an Australian who had killed a British military policeman. "He refused. That is the one, finest thing he did". He then made reference to an Iraqi soldier who described the execution of Iraqi insurgents. Fisk's father received a medal with the words"the great war for civilisation" engraved on the back. He immediately decided that would be the title for his book. During the 17 months that followed WW1, the victors, the British and the French drew the borders of northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. "I have spent my entire professional life watching the people within these borders burn". Fisk believes that in the immediate aftermath of WW1 the one country that might have got the Middle East right was the USA because throughout the region, NGOs and American diplomats, who were counsels to the dying Ottoman Empire, all petitioned the State Department in Washington to create a modern Arab state stretching from Iraq to Northern Syria to Morocco and Palestine. Thus a great new nation would emerge.. But isolationism, the death of Wildrow Wilson and then the British and French design to chop the whole place up into little bits, into Lebanon, into Syria, not giving the Kurds and Armenians a proper country, defeated the American design. That was one of the great tragic moments of the Middle East. Fisk described a documentary he made in 1992: From Baghdad To Bosnia. He filmed a burning mosque on 9th September 1992. When the New York Times reviewed the documentary they said it was an exaggeration and there was no such thing as the hatred of the West. Turning to the current situation in Iraq, Fisk said that the Iran-Iraq war was part of the genesis of the insurgency in Iraq now. Hundreds and thousands of Iraqis fought suicidely for eight years to the death. They knew how to fight but they did not have any initiative because this initiative was already taken by the man in Baghdad. In Fallujah, Fisk met one of the men who led the insurgency. He first met him during the Iran-Iraq war in Basrah in 1980.Now he and his men had a reason to fight. Fisk documented how the lessons of history had not been learned and drew many parallels with the current situation. In 1917 when the British first arrived General Maude read a declaration: "we come not as conquerors but as liberators". The insurgency started in 1920. The first British soldier, Leinstein was killed at Handari, the same place where the insurgency first killed an American soldier in 2003. In response to Leinstein's death the British army besieged Fallujah. They then laid siege to Najaf where they demanded the surrender of a Shia cleric, Badr. A telegram was sent to London saying that terrorists were crossing the border into Iraq from French-mandated Syria. Lloyd George said in parliament that if British soldiers left there would be a civil war in Iraq. Fisk than discussed ideological wars when leaders only accept the intelligence that fits their ideology. He analysed all of Bin Laden's statements between September 2001 and 9/11. Five weeks before the British and Americans invaded Iraq, Bin Laden specifically called on the Muslims in Iraq to join forces with the socialists (the Baath Party), just as the followers of the Prophet made an alliance with the Persians. That was the moment when Al Qaeda, the Baath Party and the old Iraqi army were effectively first joined together. But the Americans did not understand what he was saying. Fisk described the largest military convoy he had ever seen in his life on Highway 8 in Iraq. It was larger than any Russian convoy in Afghanistan. Two thousand years ago it would have been the Roman legion. "I realised that the Iraq war not just about oil. It demonstrated the visceral need of a super power to project military might. I was watching the American empire" The Iraqis might end the American empire. "There is chaos and anarchy in most of Iraq. There is the reality of conversations in London, Washington and Paris about elections, the future of democracy and referendums on the constitution. In Baghdad, in the homes of Iraqis, they talk about the need to prevent their children from going out in the street in case they are kidnapped, the fear of their wives being sold into slavery, the need for money to buy fuel for the generator because there is no electricity. The referendum is not relevant to the horror and terror of their lives. What about the future? "The Americans must leave and the Americans will leave and the Americans can't leave. At some point they will have to talk to someone from the insurgents. The obvious negotiators: the Red Cross and UN have been blown up. At some time there will be a talking point but I don't know how it will happen and I don't know if I want to go back and report it. http://www.dabrowska.org
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