The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
Encyclopedia
The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East is a book published in 2005 by the award-winning English
journalist
Robert Fisk
. The book is a compilation of many of the articles Fisk wrote when he was serving as a correspondent in the Middle East
for The Times
and The Independent
. The book revolves around several key themes regarding the history of the modern Middle East: the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf War
as well as the 2003 Iraq War as well as other regional conflicts such as the Armenian Genocide
and the Algerian Civil War
. The Great War for Civilisation is the second book Fisk has written about the Middle East with the first one, Pity the Nation, (Nation Books, 2002) being about the Lebanese Civil War
.
Fisk's book details his travels to many of the hotspot
s of the Middle East, such as Iraq
and Iran
during the Iran–Iraq War, and his numerous interviews with both the country's leaders and its people. Along with these interviews, Fisk also provides much of the historical context to these conflicts.
In the book, Fisk criticizes the governments of the United States
and the United Kingdom
for what he perceives as their hypocritical and biased foreign policy towards the Middle East, especially in regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the 2003 Iraq War. He contends leaders of both countries deliberately misled the world about their motivations for invading Iraq in 2003.
The name of the book comes from a campaign medal Fisk's father was awarded for his services in the First World War.
1. "One of Our Brothers Had a Dream..." is about Fisk's first interview in 1996 with the leader of al-Qaeda
, Osama bin Laden
in the mountains of Afghanistan
. The title of the chapter is derived from bin Laden who explains that one of his fighters had a dream of Fisk, wearing a robe and with a beard, and who was approaching them on a horse, signifying that he was, according to bin Laden, a "true Muslim". Fisk immediately understood the context of the dream as an attempt by bin Laden to recruit him into his organization.
2. They Shoot Russians is on the 1980 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan where Fisk chronicles much of the problems the Soviet Union
faced in dealing with the Afghan mujahideen
when they entered the country as well as the invasion's galvanizing effect in recruiting thousands of foreign Muslim
fighters to the country and the resurgence of radical Islam in the country.
3. The Choirs of Kandahar is essentially a continuation of Chapter 2.
4. The Carpet-Weavers begins with the United States
' and Great Britain's successful overthrow of the democratically elected prime minister of Iran
, Mohammed Mosaddeq. From there, it moves on to the events leading up to and following the Iranian Revolution
of 1979 which deposed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
.
5-8. The Path to War and the subsequent chapters The Whirlwind War, War Against War and the Fast Train to Paradise and Drinking the Poisoned Chalice deal with Saddam Hussein
's Iraq, the battles of the Iran-Iraq of the 1980s including the Tanker War, Iran's use of human wave tactics and Saddam's use of chemical weapons against Iran, the United States' and West
's roles in the conflict and the conclusion of the war.
9. Sentenced to Suffer Death is Fisk's account of his father, Bill Fisk, during his service in the British military in World War I
and his difficult decision to take part as a member of a firing squad ordered to execute another soldier.
10. The First Holocaust is devoted to the topic of the Armenian Genocide
. Its title is derived from the fact that the Genocide, organized by the government of the Ottoman Empire
, took place in 1915, several decades before the Jewish Holocaust. In it, Fisk provides the historical context of the Armenian Genocide and includes his numerous interviews with survivors of the Genocide who are then living in Lebanon
and Armenia
. Fisk also heavily criticizes the denialist stance of Turkey
, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, as well as Israel
and Great Britain for failing to recognize the massacres and deportations as genocide.
11-13. Fifty Thousand Miles from Palestine and the subsequent chapters The Last Colonial War and The Girl and the Child and Love are devoted to the Arab-Israeli conflict from the 1980s onward. The chapters deal with the deaths of civilians on both sides, suicide bombings and the Israeli government's military approach to the Palestinian
issue. Much of these chapters also detail with media
coverage of the conflict and the terms used by them to describe both sides, most notably the word "terrorist".
14. Anything to Wipe Out a Devil... briefly focuses on the Algerian War and the use of torture and terrorism by both the French military and Algerian fighters of the 1954-1962 war. After the French pullout and Algerian independence, the book details the internal power struggles among the secular and Islamist factions and continues on with this theme in to the Algerian Civil War
which began in 1991.
15. Planet Damnation gives an eyewitness report of the Gulf War
. Fisk was stationed in the desert with the Allied forces and makes references both to the push-back of Iraqis from Kuwait as to the bombing of Iraq in connection to it.
16. Betrayal describes the repression of the Iraqi uprising after the Gulf War by the Iraqi government, which attacked and persecuted the rebels, as well as the Kurdish northern minority.
17. The Land of Graves. The pun in chapter's title points at the repercussions that U.N.'s sanctions against Iraq had on the civillian population.
18. The Plague deals with the unusual illnesses which plagued the Iraqi public after the war.
19. Now Thrive the Armourers... is an incursion into the world of the arms manufacturers of "all nationalities, all faiths, all follies, all causes and all crimes," which provide belligerents with weapons.
20. Even to Kings, He Comes... is an analysis of the deeds of King Hussein of Jordan
and President Hafez al-Assad
of Syria. The first, a controversial ruler, whose subjects were both acclaiming him and shrieking at his coffin during his burial ceremony, is put alongside with "The Lion of Damascus", whose Hama massacre
is looked into.
21. Why ? tries to find an explanation to the September 11, 2001, attacks. From a strict journalistic point of view, the tragedy came totally unwelcome for Fisk, as it postponed indefinitely his coverage of the Sabra and Chatila massacres
out of the pages of The Independent. Fisk inserts the skipped report in the first part of Chapter 21.
22. The Die Is Cast examines the diplomatic and mass media moves which led to the Operation Iraqi Freedom.
23. Atomic Dog, Annihilator, Arsonist, Anthrax, Anguish and Agamemnon describes in great detail the turbulences which have accompanied the takeover of Iraq and its capital, Baghdad.
24. Into the Wilderness is the last chapter of the book. It gives an idea of the challenges the Coalition Provisional Authority
has faced in that country, and reports on the assassination of the Lebanese Prime-Minister Rafiq Hariri, witnessed by Fisk.
The book ends, as it has begun, in the "tiny village of Louvencourt
, on the Somme," where Robert Fisk's father has fought. This is not only meant as a homage to Bill Fisk, but is also an implicit reminder of one of the leitmotif
s of the book: the volatile situation in the Middle East is a consequence of the political arrangements concluded at the end of the First World War.
The work has also a Chronology of the Middle East, starting with the birth of the Prophet Mohammed and ending in 2005, the year of the book's British release, with the words: "UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1968
-- calling for Israel's withdrawal from occupied land -- remains unfulfilled."
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of The Independent, he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and the same country's...
. The book is a compilation of many of the articles Fisk wrote when he was serving as a correspondent in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
. The book revolves around several key themes regarding the history of the modern Middle East: the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
as well as the 2003 Iraq War as well as other regional conflicts such as the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
and the Algerian Civil War
Algerian Civil War
The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...
. The Great War for Civilisation is the second book Fisk has written about the Middle East with the first one, Pity the Nation, (Nation Books, 2002) being about the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
.
Fisk's book details his travels to many of the hotspot
Hotspot
Hot spot generally refers to small areas of intense or important activity embedded in a larger area of relative calm. Specifically, it may refer to:-Arts and entertainment:* Hot Spot , a 1963 Musical...
s of the Middle East, such as Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
during the Iran–Iraq War, and his numerous interviews with both the country's leaders and its people. Along with these interviews, Fisk also provides much of the historical context to these conflicts.
In the book, Fisk criticizes the governments of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for what he perceives as their hypocritical and biased foreign policy towards the Middle East, especially in regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the 2003 Iraq War. He contends leaders of both countries deliberately misled the world about their motivations for invading Iraq in 2003.
The name of the book comes from a campaign medal Fisk's father was awarded for his services in the First World War.
Contents
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
in the mountains of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. The title of the chapter is derived from bin Laden who explains that one of his fighters had a dream of Fisk, wearing a robe and with a beard, and who was approaching them on a horse, signifying that he was, according to bin Laden, a "true Muslim". Fisk immediately understood the context of the dream as an attempt by bin Laden to recruit him into his organization.
2. They Shoot Russians is on the 1980 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan where Fisk chronicles much of the problems the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
faced in dealing with the Afghan mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...
when they entered the country as well as the invasion's galvanizing effect in recruiting thousands of foreign Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
fighters to the country and the resurgence of radical Islam in the country.
3. The Choirs of Kandahar is essentially a continuation of Chapter 2.
4. The Carpet-Weavers begins with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
' and Great Britain's successful overthrow of the democratically elected prime minister of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Mohammed Mosaddeq. From there, it moves on to the events leading up to and following the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
of 1979 which deposed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
.
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's Iraq, the battles of the Iran-Iraq of the 1980s including the Tanker War, Iran's use of human wave tactics and Saddam's use of chemical weapons against Iran, the United States' and West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
's roles in the conflict and the conclusion of the war.
9. Sentenced to Suffer Death is Fisk's account of his father, Bill Fisk, during his service in the British military in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and his difficult decision to take part as a member of a firing squad ordered to execute another soldier.
10. The First Holocaust is devoted to the topic of the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
. Its title is derived from the fact that the Genocide, organized by the government of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, took place in 1915, several decades before the Jewish Holocaust. In it, Fisk provides the historical context of the Armenian Genocide and includes his numerous interviews with survivors of the Genocide who are then living in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
. Fisk also heavily criticizes the denialist stance of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, as well as Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Great Britain for failing to recognize the massacres and deportations as genocide.
11-13. Fifty Thousand Miles from Palestine and the subsequent chapters The Last Colonial War and The Girl and the Child and Love are devoted to the Arab-Israeli conflict from the 1980s onward. The chapters deal with the deaths of civilians on both sides, suicide bombings and the Israeli government's military approach to the Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
issue. Much of these chapters also detail with media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
coverage of the conflict and the terms used by them to describe both sides, most notably the word "terrorist".
14. Anything to Wipe Out a Devil... briefly focuses on the Algerian War and the use of torture and terrorism by both the French military and Algerian fighters of the 1954-1962 war. After the French pullout and Algerian independence, the book details the internal power struggles among the secular and Islamist factions and continues on with this theme in to the Algerian Civil War
Algerian Civil War
The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...
which began in 1991.
15. Planet Damnation gives an eyewitness report of the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. Fisk was stationed in the desert with the Allied forces and makes references both to the push-back of Iraqis from Kuwait as to the bombing of Iraq in connection to it.
16. Betrayal describes the repression of the Iraqi uprising after the Gulf War by the Iraqi government, which attacked and persecuted the rebels, as well as the Kurdish northern minority.
17. The Land of Graves. The pun in chapter's title points at the repercussions that U.N.'s sanctions against Iraq had on the civillian population.
18. The Plague deals with the unusual illnesses which plagued the Iraqi public after the war.
19. Now Thrive the Armourers... is an incursion into the world of the arms manufacturers of "all nationalities, all faiths, all follies, all causes and all crimes," which provide belligerents with weapons.
20. Even to Kings, He Comes... is an analysis of the deeds of King Hussein of Jordan
Hussein of Jordan
Hussein bin Talal was the third King of Jordan from the abdication of his father, King Talal, in 1952, until his death. Hussein's rule extended through the Cold War and four decades of Arab-Israeli conflict...
and President Hafez al-Assad
Hafez al-Assad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria for three decades. Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government after decades of coups and counter-coups, such as Operation Wappen in 1957 conducted by the Eisenhower administration and...
of Syria. The first, a controversial ruler, whose subjects were both acclaiming him and shrieking at his coffin during his burial ceremony, is put alongside with "The Lion of Damascus", whose Hama massacre
Hama massacre
The Hama massacre occurred in February 1982, when the Syrian army, under the orders of the president of Syria Hafez al-Assad, conducted a scorched earth policy against the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Sunni Muslim community against the regime of al-Assad...
is looked into.
21. Why ? tries to find an explanation to the September 11, 2001, attacks. From a strict journalistic point of view, the tragedy came totally unwelcome for Fisk, as it postponed indefinitely his coverage of the Sabra and Chatila massacres
Sabra and Shatila massacre
The Sabra and Shatila massacre took place in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon between September 16 and September 18, 1982, during the Lebanese civil war. Palestinian and Lebanese civilians were massacred in the camps by Christian Lebanese Phalangists while the camp...
out of the pages of The Independent. Fisk inserts the skipped report in the first part of Chapter 21.
22. The Die Is Cast examines the diplomatic and mass media moves which led to the Operation Iraqi Freedom.
23. Atomic Dog, Annihilator, Arsonist, Anthrax, Anguish and Agamemnon describes in great detail the turbulences which have accompanied the takeover of Iraq and its capital, Baghdad.
24. Into the Wilderness is the last chapter of the book. It gives an idea of the challenges the Coalition Provisional Authority
Coalition Provisional Authority
The Coalition Provisional Authority was established as a transitional government following the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, members of the Multi-National Force – Iraq which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003...
has faced in that country, and reports on the assassination of the Lebanese Prime-Minister Rafiq Hariri, witnessed by Fisk.
The book ends, as it has begun, in the "tiny village of Louvencourt
Louvencourt
Louvencourt is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:Louvencourt is situated northeast of Amiens, on the D938 road-Population:-External links:*...
, on the Somme," where Robert Fisk's father has fought. This is not only meant as a homage to Bill Fisk, but is also an implicit reminder of one of the leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
s of the book: the volatile situation in the Middle East is a consequence of the political arrangements concluded at the end of the First World War.
The work has also a Chronology of the Middle East, starting with the birth of the Prophet Mohammed and ending in 2005, the year of the book's British release, with the words: "UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1968
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VIof the United Nations Charter...
-- calling for Israel's withdrawal from occupied land -- remains unfulfilled."