After reading the huge tome The Great War for Civilization, some readers may conclude that the book lacks any real political perspective but that’s why further reading opens an exploration of different realities. The book suffers from being posthumously published, and it is not a happy read but it matches quite well with its subject, the long unrelenting cycle of death, betrayal, cynical opportunism and at it’s core, war. The USA, UK, France, and Israel don’t come out well from his analysis.
The book begins in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq war outlining the missteps of foreign policy in the Middle East. The realities of these pile on: Saddam’s hanging, U.S army war crimes and its lies, the destruction of life and property and the rise of extreme ideologies in the form of Al Qaeda and ISIS– the litany of gruesemness continues.
The insightful narrative is a road of uncomfortable truths. The in-depth coverage of Arab Spring and it’s aftermath, is an eye opener but so is the historical background of the Israel-Palestine issue. Looking at events through a human lens, Fisk never shirks from questioning the hypocrisy and the incompetence of world powers for the current strife in the Middle East.
Some parts sound stale, especially the lengthy expose of US involvement in Iraq. Reading this in 2025, it’s less a revelation but however, it buttresses his themes. In some parts, a certain monotony become apparent, akin to a drip-feed.
The West has adopted different rhetoric to describe massacres by regimes they like vs. ones they don’t like. The massacres can be the same but for the hypocrisy of how we speak about them leads to dictators using this for their own. Power and the media is all about words and the use of semantics. The misuse of history and our ignorance of history make jour prisoners of the language of power.
Western power and its subtrafuges is brought to life with on-the-ground vivid reporting focusing not only on geopolitical matters but also on the personal stories of ordinary people caught in these conflicts. Fisk doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of war revealing the deep seams left by decades of conflict
According to his wife, Nelofer Pazire-Fisk in the epilogue, more than anything it fosters helplessness. It’s hard not to be impressed by blending on-the -ground reporting with historical analyses for the reader’s benefit to delve into the area’s dynamic. His critical stance on US policies feel overly one-sided for those seeking a balanced perspective. Fisk is equally thorough and unsparing in documenting the atrocities carried out by Hussein, Gaddafi, Ak-Assad, as he is on the crimes of US and Israel
As Patrick Cockburn notes in his foreword, Fisk was Historian of the present, steeped in the past. The book is tragic, the drama and violence is so powerful that it’s painful but impossible to put down. It’s easy to praise or criticise his analysis.
So what do we learn from looking backwards? Struggle is a given in a region of divided people, ethnically and religiously, they they will continue to struggle to make way for their tribes and people’s.
I’m sure a more condensed book would be welcome by some readers but to forensically document the horrors and injustices, is the only rigorous approach for a journalistic tour de force, no matter how unbearable at times it is to continue reading. That is the incomparable Fisk way.
NB…. it is a clarion call for the reader to realise that there is no right or wrong sides since the actions on all sides are equally reprehensible.
