I only add my comments to the many thoughtful and perceptive reviews already written of this must read especially for all Americans who ask "Why do they [Muslims] hate us?". Among others, Condoleezza Rice at the 2004 9/11 Congressional hearings answered this question, "Because of who we are" when the revealed answer in Robert Fisk's book is, "What we do." Fisk sweeping review of 50 plus years of Middle Eastern and Central Asian history unapologically includes the colonial powers of Britain and France, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, and Israel in this indictment. But, for Americans new to this history, he pointedly includes the U.S. as well.

Reading this painful, graphic, and woeful tale of "man's inhumanity to man" ironically called the Great War for Civilization in reference to an inscription on a medal his father received in WWI proves Ms. Rice and others wrong. The terrorist target on the back of the United States is our blind allegiance to: First, Zionist Israel and it's ruthless march to create a 100% Jewish state at the expense of a virtually unarmed Palestinian people; Second, an outmoded British colonist policy in the Middle East and Central Asia; Third, the quest for dominating the oil rich countries of that part of the world; Fourth, our vested interest in arming anyone who has the money to buy our F-16s, Hellfire missiles, and Apache helicopters, including those with lucrative U.S. loans like Israel and Saudi Arabia; and, Lastly, the urge to interfere with the real politic of an unstable region on the basis of a neo-conservative ideology to democratize those countries stuck in the Middle Ages.

As Johnson Chalmers predicts at the end of his book, "The Sorrows of Empire:...", Nemesis, the Greek Goddess of revenge and indignation against those who commit crimes with apparent impunity, patiently waits.

A great book. Author has lived in the area for years and worked as a journalist for the Independent. Takes a personal approach; shows an empathy for the peoples he writes about; does not mouth the US line.

If you want to know what's really going on in the Middle East, read this.

Fisk is, I freely admit, someone I consider a bit of a hero, a rare modern journalist who is honest and attentive and cognizant of history. His well-written and well-researched tome provides incredibly important and relevant (and timely) context for what has been and will continue to occur in this troubled region. Fisk pulls no punches about the culpability of a lot of people and governments, including western and Israeli ones (refreshing.) This is, in my view, one of the most important books on the Middle East in a very long time. Bravo!

Every one think today that we live in modern times. Fact is human are the same. Greed is the same. Methods may differ but target is the same.

For me, especially difficult part to read was the section on Palestine. I had to stop every few pages and make my self swallow the tears and control my agony. I am surprised that people who know "The Holocaust" all too well, have no problem creating one for others.

Quran 5:8 (Asad) O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let hatred of any-one lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious. And remain conscious of God: verily, God is aware of all that you do.

An incredibly well travelled and fact-focused journalist, Robert Fisk, wrote a very interesting book about the recent history of the Middle-East (ME). Covering a broad array of topics - covered in more detail by other reviewers - Fisk presents an encompassing account of the region.

While Fisk's work creates both friends and enemies, all should take comfort in his "go see it for yourself" mentality. With the pace at which both informed and ill-informed news exchanges hands in our current times, Fisk's discipline in visiting sites and talking with witnesses and stakeholders provides much needed credibility to his accounts of a region often steeped in lies and deceit.

If you are looking for a detailed account of the ME's recent socio-political history, this is a great starting point. It provides a great foundation by which to begin to understand and interpret the current events shaping the region.

While I loved the content, I did not always like Fisks writing style. This book could be shorter were it not also trying to include a personal autobiography and repudiations to attacks previously made on the journalist's character and methods. From a literary perspective, Fisk could have narrowed his purpose in writing and in turn received 5 starts.

Then read this book. All senior military and political leaders need to read this book to be able to come up with valid political objectives regarding our current wars.

It would perhaps not be an exaggeration to say that Robert Fisk is one of the best international politics journalists alive today, and this book, "The Great War for Civilization", is the crown upon his work. Few people know the Middle East, both in its practice and in its history, as well as Fisk does, who as correspondent for The Times and The Independent has lived and travelled throughout the Middle East for several decades. Even more rare are the people who can write about it with not just such indignation and insight, but also with such style and humanity as Robert Fisk. Though he has been accused often of grandstanding and being a bit too self-righteous, and there may be some truth to that, this book is not just critical of practically every political leader involved in the Middle East, now or in the past, but also of Fisk himself and of the role of journalists in general in the bloody mess.

And Fisk has seen and experienced much. The book covers, in due sequence, his several interviews with Osama Bin Laden (one gets the impression from the book that Bin Laden actually likes Fisk somewhat, a sentiment Fisk hurries to dismiss), the Soviet war in Afghanistan and its followup, the history of Western involvement in Iran with the overthrow of Mossadegh and the support for the Shah, the colonization of Iraq by the British and its failure and successive history, the devastating Iran-Iraq war (which deservedly plays a central role in the book, being much underestimated in its import in journalistic overviews nowadays), the genocide on the Armenians in 1915, the wars between Israel and Palestine as well as their neighbors and the history of the making of Israel, the independence war and subsequent shadowy civil war in Algeria, the First Gulf War and the betrayal of the anti-Saddam Hussein uprisings, the international arms trade, and finally the Second Gulf War and the current occupation of Afghanistan, with in between reports on Syria, Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, Kuweit, the Kurds, Turkey and much more. It is no surprise then that the book is about 1300 pages of actual text; the real surprise is that despite this massive size, the book actually manages to be a page-turner, with never a dull moment as Fisk goes from war to political conference, from interviews with soldiers and locals to historical overviews, from mortal dangers in the desert sands to reflections on the role of journalists from his apartment in Beirut, and from 1918 to 2005.

Indeed, the title "The Great War for Civilization" is not just an irony in referencing the attitude of a multitude of imperial armies descending upon the area ever since the Crusades, but also a reference to the official title given by the British to World War I (before anyone knew there would be a World War II), as inscribed upon the medals given to the surviving participants, among them Fisk's own father, who never got over the experience. This backdrop, the 'war to end all wars' but didn't, and at the same time the period when the doom of the modern Middle East and its political strife was laid upon the area by the decisions of a small number of Western colonial administrators, is Fisk's decor and reference point for describing all the events and people so vividly portrayed in this book. Indeed, the book should not be taken as an all-too-simple anti-Western screed, for Fisk is brutally honest not just about the imperial governments and their support for tyrants in the Middle East (when not operating on their own account), but also about all their opponents in the area's politics, many of whom are just as bloody, cruel and tyrannical as the West's policies have been. Fisk spares nobody and has no preconceived axe to grind, and it is precisely that which makes this book hit harder and cut deeper than any other of its kind that I am aware of. The ideologue, even when correct, is easily dismissed, as he represents politics - not so the vulnerable, doubting, but morally incorruptible critic, who represents all the rest of humanity, who does not rule but observes the rulers.

There is much bloodshed, cruelty and despair in this book, and it is certainly not for the faint of heart, nor for those easily inclined towards depression. Do not expect your mood or sense of hope to be improved from this book. Fisk goes from deadly war to torture chamber and from one mendacious politician to the other while blood colors the sands red. Indeed, the only real criticism the Washington Post reviewer could offer was that things could not possibly be as bleak as Fisk portrays them to be, which seems more based on the desire to maintain a sense of hope about the world than on a factual criticism. Yet precisely because all these things have been seen, because they have not gone unnoticed, because Fisk (with many others) was there to write them down and do them justice, because of that, things are not all dark. A chronicle of this kind can and should never be light reading; as Gibbon wrote, "history is nothing but the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind". But the fact that there are those who register, so that we may draw our conclusions, is what makes politics possible beyond despair.

Just finished this massive book all 1286 pages of it. It presents a very through and detailed analysis of most of the conflicts over the past 80 years in the Middle East.

Its mostly done from first hand experience which in my view adds considerable credibility to the story. There would be very few people on this planet who would have been prepared to go to the places the author has had to go to. His anger at various people is the cummulative impact of a lifetime of experience watching people getting blown to bits.

The book cuts back and forth across time. Some poeple may find this annoying - I did not.

Could the book have been shorter - possibly. However, the sheer volume of detail builds credibility. This is certainly not some superficial analysis.

The only area of disappointment for me was a lack of solutions as to what should come next. It is clear that the author believes the Western worlds policies have damaged Middle Eastern people, however one does not get a picture from the author as to what he believes should happen now.

The book has opened my eyes to a few things. Overall an excellent book and one I would recommend to others.

A great personal, neutral and sympathetic reporting of the last dramatic thirty years of the crisis that befell the Middle east. The book is a true biography of Afghanistan during the Russian occupation, the Taliban and the American occupation. Fisk travels, in an epic journey, through the Middle east's Iran revolution, Iraq-Iran, Iraq-Kuwait Invasion, Kuwait's Liberation, the devastating ten years of sanctions on Iraq, and the American occupation of Iraq. He reveals the misery that the Palestinians lived through in Lebanon, Kuwait's Liberation, the first and the second Intifadhas, the peace process and Hamas democratic election. Fisk narrates the true story of the Algerian civil war following the winning of an Islamic party the general elections in the early nineties. With all this recent carnage, Fisk does not forget to spend a chapter on the forgotten genocide of the Armenians in the Early twentieth century.

This book is a must for those who want to understand the Modern Middle east and its impact on the world affairs.

"...war is a security organization...because it succeeds...in inventing, real enemies to kill, and...if...not for war, society would...leave men defenseless before...a purely internal foe." - "The Psychoanalysis of War," Franco Fornari, 1974.

A scribe at Britain's "The Independent," English born Robert Fisk (1946- ), Ph.D., Political Science, LL.D., et al, has resided in Beirut, Lebanon since 1976. His compassionate book, "The Great War for Civilisation," 2006, is based on 16 years of eyewitness reporting on "The Conquest of the Middle East," culled from over 350,000 various documents. It is almost 1,400 pages, replete with 10 maps, bibliography, exhaustive notes and a chronology.

Fisk's coverage of Israel's influence here and the American invasion of Iraq is provocative, because nobody wants to "damage the peace process"... Arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, whom the author questioned, don't speak out against improprieties Israel commits with ordnances because they are a valued customer. And "The Independent" did a fortnight study of American military stocks, ascertaining that thousands of armour, tanks and planes were grabbed by Israel during two decades. Officers apprised Fisk that the omnipotent Israeli lobby doesn't tolerate captious politicians, who treasure their longevity in government, therefore allowing Israel to anytime snatch more than the minimum $14 million in arms required for congressional notification, uncontested and unreported because it is "classified."

The most powerful such lobby group is the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, which former doyen of, Denis Ross, plus three other Jews--if they were all Arabs, someone would've taken notice--became head negotiators of in the latter 1990's "peace envoy." The American press was reticent about this bias, but the Israeli press welcomed them.

Fisk pondered, not just the "how" and "who," but the "why," behind "9/11," the 2001 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York City. Also, he says, just after this event, on September 16, no British or American newspaper "...would recall the fact that on that date in 1982, Israel's Phalangist militia allies started their three-day orgy of rape and knifing and murder in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila. It followed an Israeli invasion of Lebanon...which cost the lives of 17,500 Lebanese and Palestinians, almost all of them civilians...more than five times the death toll in the September 11th, 2001 attacks....No, Israel was not to blame for what happened..." The author explains that it was Osama bin Laden, whom he first met in 1993, and al-Qaeda, who were the perpetrators, making their statement regarding how they felt about America's involvement in the Middle East--not because "they hate our democracy." None came from Iraq, which U.S. President George W. Bush's aggressors invaded, seeking "weapons of mass destruction" which never existed, through their "war on terror."

Fisk documents America's pitiless sanctions and civilian killings--"collateral damage"--in Iraq. In Baghdad, citizens' looting is not precluded by U.S. forces, who protect only the Ministry of the Interior, with its intelligence info, and the Ministry of Oil--go figure. It is Israel, who dispossessed 750,000 Palestinians of their land--and "right to exist," in the West Bank, in 1948, who now dictates American foreign policy in the Middle East, weakening Arab voices.

Get "The Great War for Civilisation" by Robert Fisk, where a sparrow tells an uncaring world from a plaintive branch.

Anyone with any curiosity about the issue of Islamic fundamentalism, Israels terrorist state etc needs to read this.

This book explains what's going on in the Middle East. It would be exciting to read even if it was fiction, but it's all true and very recent. After reading it I could understood events on TV news from the Middle East for the first time. Read the first chapter about one of his interviews and see what you think.

This book explains what's going on in the Middle East. It would be exciting to read even if it was fiction, but it's all true and very recent.

After reading it I could understood events on TV news from the Middle East for the first time. Read the first chapter about one of his interviews and see what you think.

I opened this one Christmas, and thought, here's one that I'll never get to.

That is until I actually opened it and started reading. Like many "journalistic" histories this book does jump around a bit, and there were sections I "blip-read", but this is the first book I have read on this area and subject where I felt like the author had enough personal experience to talk about historical events and make it appear alive-- and deadly.

What an experience reading this book has been. I have been skeptical of Western intervention in the Middle East, and I knew a lot of nasty stuff was going on. I still got nauseous reading about Mossadeq in Iran and the Armenian genocide (which is to this day still in the headlines).

This book is also a strong argument for publishing fat books in two volumes.

Normally it takes me maybe four or five hours to finish a whole book. With this one, I would read for four hours and discover I had read maybe 50 pages.

There is a lot of information in here. Fisk often rambles on and on, and he could have seriously used an editor, but when he writes from his perspective about something interesting, it is really interesting. He doesn't bother being polite or diplomatic about something. He is equally as hard and fair on the Iraqis, Iranians, Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, Soviets and British as he is on every subject. And in a lot of cases it is really interesting to read the different perspectives of certain events.

In any event this is a good read if you are interested in the Middle East. Robert Fisk is certainly opinionated. But anyone growing up post-911 has built up their own fair share of opinions and biases towards this part of the world. There is a certain kind of intrinsic value in reading books like this; books which provide different perspectives than the ones we hold.

Normally it takes me maybe four or five hours to finish a whole book. With this one, I would read for four hours and discover I had read maybe 50 pages.

There is a lot of information in here. Fisk often rambles on and on, and he could have seriously used an editor, but when he writes from his perspective about something interesting, it is really interesting. He doesn't bother being polite or diplomatic about something. He is equally as hard and fair on the Iraqis, Iranians, Americans, Israelis, Soviets and British as he is on every subject. And in a lot of cases it is really interesting to read the different perspectives of certain events.

In any event this is a very good read if you are interested in the Middle East. It has biases, but in understanding its biases you easily can get a better understanding about the biases and propaganda that the West is subjected to regarding all things Middle Eastern.

"The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" is journalist Robert Fisk's very personal treatise on how the present Middle East "situation" has come about.

At a over 1300 pages this book is certainly exhaustive as Fisk covers just about every aspect of Middle East history over the last 100 years -and hammers home his points at length. Not surprisingly, the USA, UK, and Israel come in for his most ferocious criticism and one begins to feel a bit frustrated with Fisk as he criticises the UK and USA when they do act AND when they don't act - leaving one thinking: well what exactly are they supposed to do?

The highlights of the book are his meetings with Osama Bin Laden, his experiences during the Iran-Iraq war, and his first-hand account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. These occur in the first half of the book but from then on it becomes rather heavy going - though still worthwhile.

This book should be read by all students of the Middle East.

It took me a while to read this book, and whoever gets it better understand it's a daunting book to read. It's all worthwhile at the end, as you will get a history lesson from someone that lived threw most of the stories told in this book.

I devoted at least 7 months of 2006 to reading this huge work. It is without doubt the most depressing book I have read. The unrelenting description of man's inhumanity to man does not make for happy reading. The subject matter almost dictated that this book needed to be read through to its conclusion, however, the bleak, nihilistic content did not make for happy bedtimes. It only gets 3 stars from me because Mr Fisk does not give alternatives to his description of these shocking events. I would hope things need not be so bleak, but Mr Fisk gives me no hope that the worst wont happen as a matter of course.

Sir,

It was in November 12th 2007 when I made my purchase, and I received your response where the book was promised to come in December 26th 2007. Now, more than couple of weeks after the deadline, there are no signs of the book yet.

What shall I do?

Valde Mikkonen

Robert Fisk has helped me understand the problem in the Middle East. It is utterly disappointing how world leaders have handled the people living in and around Middle East. (And other parts of the world) What is even more disturbing is the way international news papers have been and are covering and informing us about world conflicts.

The reading will give you a more balanced view of the important issues that we are facing when forming foreign policies in the future. This understanding is given through a comprehensive description of the failures made by the winners of the First World War and how that is affecting our lives today.

What is also important contribution by Mr Fisk is the way he describes and makes us remember the cruel nature of mankind under bad leadership.

Finally, the book has been written by great journalistic skill and a personal touch by Mr Fisk throughout the whole book.

Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilisation" is a massive tome of some 1,111 pages including its index. It can, at times, be heavy going. At many times, it is certainly harrowing. However, to the diligent reader it will probably prove rewarding.

I am sure that Fisk has many critics as he is not afraid of expressing an opinion. Yet his knowledge, often drawn from first hand experience is difficult to challenge. For some 30 plus years, Fisk has been domiciled in the Middle East. He calls Beirut his home but is widely travelled throughout the region. His knowledge of Iraq and its troubles is unambiguously and directly drawn from his own travels as a journalist.

His vivid description of events is not for the faint hearted. If we were to rely for our knowledge upon television and the press, we would not come to understand just how brutal and demoralising this region has become. Fisk's description of the carnage in the first Gulf War when the Iraqi forces were decimated by far superior American fire power is haunting. War is never pretty and Fisk can certainly attest to this point.

As the book rolls on, Fisk gradually shifts from an expansive view of modern Middle East history including Afghanistan, Iran and Algeria to the finer details of the fall of Saddam and its aftermath. Towards the end of the book, he refers to one of his own articles publish in the London "Independent" on 17 April 2003. Its concluding words are prophetic:

"So I'll make an awful prediction. That America's war of `liberation' is over. Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is about to begin. In other words, the real and frightening story starts now."

Tragically, Fisk's view has been proven right. No one should weep for the overthrow of Saddam. The man was a butcher. Yet, how did the Iraqi people come to deserve their current hell?

This book is one of the best accounts of the conflicts that have scarred North Africa and the Middle East over the past 30 years. As he travels around this small section of the world, Robert Fisk writes clearly and engagingly about the events that took place. Cleverly interwoven into the book are stories of his own family and historical events, such as the Armenian genocide and its influence upon international politics today.

At times the detailed descriptions of the violence, destruction and carnage wrought on millions of peoples lives becomes almost too much, even for the most hardened of reader. While the reader can become desensitized to it by the end, it is worth remembering that this book is not science fiction, but reports of actual occurrences.

If you want a very good background on the recent history of the Middle East, then this is the book to read.

Probably the most neutral analysis by a Westerner regarding the problems of Middle East and between the Mid East and the West and how history is repeating itself. Its not only history but also the philosophy of it.

Fisk's eye witness accounts in the Afghan Jihad, the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf war (and the list goes on and on) adds value to the content as it does not only deal with Macro issues but also the micro ones i.e. ordinary men, women & children bieng affected by such regional developments. His ability to connect the recent past's or present events of the Middle East with those of US and EU in the 19th and early part of 20th century, and the insight into the possible outcomes in the region as a result of the West's hypocritical as well as an imperialist attitude towards it; may make this book a Must have for years to come. For no other book at present deals with so much detail about the great war or WW-4 (as per the neo-cons claim that the Cold War was WW-3)

Robert Fisk is a journalist who has high standards, and seems to have little respect for colleagues who fail to maintain similar objectivity.

He knows the importance of the words journalists use. Calling the wall the Israelis are building through Palestinian territory a "wall" is important, because that is what it is. Calling it a "barrier" or a "fence", as the Israeli authorities and most of the Western media do, is to belittle what it really is, to deny the truth of what is being visited on the Palestinian people.

Accepting the term "targeted killings" and "collateral damage" when what you are talking about is assassination and the massacre of innocent civilians are massive value judgments that also hide the truth.

"The Great War for Civilization The Conquest of the Middle East" is his magnum opus, the result of decades covering the Middle East. It is amazing, it is extremely depressing, and it should have been cut up into two or three volumes. This book is just too huge to carry around and read. It is even too heavy to comfortably read in bed.

While conflict between the West and the Islamic world goes back to the Crusades (and in fact to the Arab invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire, a point Fisk fails to make) Fisk traces the current problems to the settlement of World War I, using the war career of his father from time to time to illustrate his points. The end of the war saw massive betrayals of the people of the Middle East. Despite the promises of T.E. Lawrence, the Arabs did not receive Palestine and Syria for their own. The Kurds were denied their Kurdistan, likewise the Armenians, massacred by the Turks, only received a Soviet republic under the control of Russia. Jordan and Iraq were created as vassal states of Britain, and Egypt continued to be one. The tensions brewing since then are behind many of the current eruptions.

Fisk's story is bleak, and he criticizes virtually everyone, from Britain, France, and US to Saddam's Iraq, fundamentalist Iran, and all sides in Algeria. Halfway through the second chapter on Israel's horrid treatment of the Palestinians I couldn't take it any longer and skipped ahead to the next chapter. But impossible as it had seemed, that just brought me to the even greater horrors of Algeria, the mutual atrocities of France and the FLN liberation movement, and how when they were the government the FLN taught the Islamic rebels how to commit the same crimes against humanity after they denied them their election victory.

The final chapters about Iraq are instructive because most of the current crop of books about how the US went wrong are from the American point of view. Fisk tells the story from the Iraqi perspective, going back to the early days of the pre-invasion bombing when despite all the assurance of precision targeting, the arrogant and avoidable slaughter of civilians just created an army of opposition.

If anyone wants to understand why there are terrorists, rather than accepting the ridiculous "they hate us because they hate freedom", this book outlines what we have done to the people of the Islamic world, and why they have little reason to love us.

This is a must-read. Fisk's experiences are amazing and it's a roller-coaster through the messy hell that is the middle east. I'm familiar with much of the history, but his personal life seams it all together rather impressively. He's put his life on the line (on both sides of the line) for the truth. He's a great writer and an inspiring journalist. I'm glad he didn't follow a time line and that he's willing to occasionally lash out at leaders who are blindly revered. Our (US & UK) leaders' foreign policies are adopted from previous administrations with little thought or foresight. If you're interested in the Middle East, you need to read this book.

The Great War for Civilization, by Robert Fisk:

This is the only intelligently-written Arabist work I've ever seen. It's worth the long read.

I am a sympathizer for Zionism, served in Vietnam and Desert Shield, even attended the IDF parachute course. However, if they want to understand today's Middle East, everyone should read this counter-view.

I feel wiser, or perhaps broader for having done so.

The book "The great war for civilisation", by Robert Fisk, is wonderful, mostly for its vivid and honest telling of the history the author has lived in thr last 40 years.
Even not having finished its reading (it's a 1,100 pages book!), I can see the author does not leaves "stone on stone" (translated from a Portuguese sentence). He show how ignorant people of developed countries can be (to make a monument in Vincennes, indiana, USA, to USS Vincennes, which blowed up a civil plane, killing 290 people, is terrible!), and how dishonest governments like Reagan's and Thatcher's were. Please, divulge this book!

It's hard to exaggerate when trying to accord sufficient praise for this great book. As a pure work of journalistic reportage it seems impossible to beat, let alone come near to its level of sincerity, humanity and scope. I don't know how Mr. Fisk was able to collate and make such sense of so much material, and survive the ordeal.
Whatever one's own proclivities may be in the world of politics and religion, I don't think anyone could quarrel with the author's many observations, which are so clearly animated by an overriding sense of outrage at the callous and sensless brutality which he has so often witnessed in person in the countries where he has been a reporter.
He tries his best to be impartial, and indeed it is virtually impossible to know where the truth lies in a world of spin and manipulation. However, he clearly shows a penchant for the Muslim argument in the Middle East, and certainly there must be a lot to be said in his favour, even if he is not always wholly convincing.
This, however, is but a quibble compared with the might and majesty of this splendid book, which I would recommend anyone who is in any way concerned with the Arab world to read, and learn from.

Fisk's narrative pulls no punches, and does a superb job of recounting events ranging from the Iran-Iraq War to the Armenian genocide the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to the Palestinian Israeli conflict to the current War in Iraq -- as well as many other events relevant to the contemporary Middle East (and U.S. foreign policy in the region).

I found the account to be depressing at times, but for those who are looking for a thought-provoking, and engaging narrative this is a great place to start. No easy answers, and plenty of information to digest. The best kind of reading.

I read every word in this book. At first I was skeptical that it could all be true, but on completion I believe it is. I highly recommend this book to all.

It is an excellent way to learn just how big a mistake was made by the US and GB in trying to overthrow the goverment in Iraq and establish a puppet democracy.

here is a writer who lived in the middle east, who walked the streets and breathed the air, who talked to all the big heads and saw all the battles...he is not your typical expert who appear on CNN/Fox News... he has in-depth knowledge, i wish alan dershowitz can learn from him

read this and pitty the nation

Fisk is an amazing source of information! He has done his homework on all the subjects. As an American, it opened my eyes so much to the hypocricy of America and the cruelty along with some of the good things that America has done. It explains why the Middle East hates us and why it is the way it is nowadays and many other things. Go Fisk!

First, let me say that Fisk is a very good journalist, and it shows through in the personal details he records. He knows how to both write well and ask good questions. He also knows how to connect the dots well. And, he has stuck his head out -- a lot -- to get real war stories while refusing to "embed," whether with American troops, British ones, or any other forces.

Second is that he has what will probably seem to most Americans to be a refreshing, if not challenging, take on both Arab-Israeli issues and how the U.S. has often compounded trouble in the Middle East, primarily but by no means solely due to how it has handled Arab-Israeli issues.

Third, while, while his take on modern Israel could be called "anti-Zionist," it's a canard and a red herring to call it anti-Semitism. It's a canard because equating criticisms of the nation of Israel with attacks for ethnic reasons on the Jewish people is a simple lie, one propagated by intensely pro-Israel (vs. pro-Jewish/Judaism) lobbying agencies in the U.S. And, it's a red herring because it's designed to divert people's attention from Israel's legitimate human rights and international law problems, and the U.S.'s blind backing of much of this.

Related to that, he's not "anti-American" just against much of current American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Fourth, Fisk does report this fairly; above all, while asking the "why" questions about the 9/11 attacks that American journalists play "ostrich" with, he makes clear in many ways that he doesn't believe in "moral equivalence" or anything similar.

That said, the book is open to legitimate criticism. First, 1,000-plus pages is too long. About 750 would have been plenty; increase the type size 1 point and you're at 800. That said, better editing would have achieved that, plus tried to get more organization on the book. Fisk's reminisces about his father, while nice, should have been moved to another book. For organization, either a clearer chronological structure, or a tighter country-by-country structure, might have helped.

This is a well-written, fact-filled book, but is very hard to read because of the subject matter. It's about man's inhumanity to man and how it has played out for the last 50 years in the middle east. There are few heroes, except the author, and many, many, many villains. There are the Islamic fundamentalists, the Jewish fundamentalists, the Christian fundamentalists, the invading armies, and the ubiquitous arms dealers. One genocide after another - many that I was unaware of.

Most of all, the author relates a set of very human stories - tragedies for the most part. He tells about following a bomb back to its makers who refused to accept any responsibility for how it was used. They claimed that bombs are made to preserve the peace. He meets and talks to Osama Bin Laden and Kalashnikov. He tells the story of an ambulance bombing of innocents, a beautiful young women killed as she was about to begin her adult life, and more denial of responsibility. If you want to know how it really is in the middle east, read this book. But don't expect that you will come away feeling good. The author raises lots of questions that somehow we all have to answer in the coming years.

Fisk may be the most talented, insightful and knowledgeable journalists covering the Middle East. This book is a necessary read if one is to understand recent and current events in the area and our government role in such events. For anybody interested in the history and politics of the area, this book is a must.

Everyone concerned with contemporary world affairs should read this book. Fisk aims to capture the sweep of events in Western Asia over decades, and he largely succeeds.

It is not a great sweep-of-history book in the sense of Gibbon or Macaulay - Fisk is a journalist, not an historian - although it has great journalistic passages.

Fisk provides an indispensable antidote to much of the propaganda and disingenuousness that plagues mainline media on the subjects of the Middle East and terror, much the way the Internet is plagued with innumerable viruses and Trojan horses.

Robert Fisk is one of the world's great war correspondents, and if you haven't read him at his passionate best, read the sections of this book about the Soviet Union in Afghanistan or the first Gulf War. He has lived in the Middle East for decades, and he has hurled himself into the conflicts there time and again.

To some, particularly defenders of Israel's excesses, Fisk is a controversial figure. But there is relatively little legitimate controversy possible in Fisk's reporting. He writes what he has witnessed, and he has spent many years putting himself at risk to be a witness.

The faults of the book are few.

At over twelve hundred pages, it may prove off-putting for new readers, but if this is a fault from one perspective, it is a strength from another. The book stands as an invaluable, comprehensive reference for events in the Middle East over recent decades. Forgotten a name involved in a famous event or a date? You are almost sure to find it here.

One of Fisk's stylistic manners is to get the name of obscure witnesses, as an individual soldier, or details such as the serial number off the scrap of a shell used in a battle or incursion, verifying where it came from. These are the practices of a seasoned, professional journalist and often provide Fisk with leads to still other stories.

For new readers, it should be emphasized that Fisk generally is a clear writer, so the length of the book should not discourage you.

The other fault is its episodic nature, although again this is a fault only from some perspectives.

The episodic nature undoubtedly derives from Fisk work as a columnist, and I think it likely a good part of the book is taken from re-worked columns or old notebooks. It is important to stress that the book is not a collection of old columns, a common kind of book from so many columnists.

Fisk enjoys reading himself, and the sense of an omnivorous reader of newspapers and history books pervades his work.

This is a huge tome, telling of the bloody history of the Middle East, and the author's own experiences as a reporter in the area. Fisk's narrative jumps around a lot, from country to country and period to period: Afghanistan, Palestine, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, the Armenian holocaust and more are covered. However, as the author states in his introduction, the book is a personal view rather than an attempt at an historical account.

Fisk's anger at Western involvement in the region comes over loud and clear, particularly the support for the region's unspeakable regimes. How quickly we forget, for example, that Saddam Hussein was once supported and supplied by Western nations. Fisk spares the reader nothing regarding descriptions of the atrocities perpetrated by governments upon people, Muslim upon Muslim, and nation upon nation.

Perhaps Fisk's account is needed to draw attention to horrific reality. Indeed he is at his best when describing his personal experiences as a reporter. What is not on offer is a solution, perhaps because there simply aren't any. It certainly appears to be the case that the governments involved gave little or no thought to what would happen after the invasion of Iraq.

This massive volume could have done with some editing. Nonetheless, it's worth the harrowing read.

G Rodgers

I was amazed by how much Fisk had experienced in the middle east. There is lots of information provided about the history of the region that I was not aware of. So I enjoyed all of that and his personal experiences. But there were two things that I did not like. He is all over the place with his time line of stories. I would have preferred that he stuck with a time line. I found his style a little disjointed because of that.

The other thing I did not like is that about 50% of his info seems to be unbiased good information. About 45% seems to be unsubstantiated hearsay that he kind of presents as unbiased good information. And then the final 5% are these short, sort of unsubstantiated, sometimes out of context, outbursts of emotional charges against various world leaders.

So this book is a good one to read for much more background on what is going on in the middle east. But I would like to warn the reader to beware of what is real, what is rumor, and what is opinion. Worth a read but I think it could have been much better if edited for these weaknesses

Robert Fisk is a respected journalist, and an authentic expert on the Middle East. His book is a personally witnessed history of the last couple of decades in the region in the context of its history -- concentrating on the Iran-Iraq War, the first Gulf War, the 2003 US war against Saddam Hussein, and the subsequent insurgency.
Fisk reports the horrible facts; he is excellent on the history. He is also convinced that pretty much everything Israel does to ensure its survival in a hostile Arab sea (as it no doubt believes) is brutal and immoral; and that everything the United States does to advance its own interests is brutal, immoral, and heedless of the harm it causes the Arabs. Those guys, in his view, tend to be the injured party, and much less to blame. Some of that is true. Probably not as much as seen by Fisk.

Fisk describes individual suffering on all sides in the Middle East. He focuses more or the arab side but seems objective overall. His reports are heart breaking and made me ashamed of my government and ashamed of all man-kind. I am now even more cynical about politics, nationalism, large organizations and governments. Frank

I've looked over many other reviews and mostly agree with them, both the positives and negatives of this book.

Up front, I want to say that this is a necessary read to ever have a broad understanding of so many Middle East situations including Israel, Palestine, Iran, Afghanistan, and, of course, Iraq. It also helps considerably in understanding WHY there is "terrorism".

Probably the toughest part of reading the book is when Fisk writes about the many, many innocent people who have been killed or seriously injured over the decades in the Middle East both from war and from limiting the flow of goods into needy countries.. The book points out something we almost never feel and understand in depth It tells us the extent of so-called collateral damage when bombs are dropped from planes and helicopters in the name of getting rid of a single significant leader. It points out how often children are deprived of the nutrition they need as they grow up.

It tells of the tragedy of massive bombing of troops and cities. It raises in my mind the cost of war to human beings.

The book makes one consider the many wars and incidents and the relationship of these to "terrorism". It really takes to task the foreign policy of western governments (USA, UK, especially). It makes me wonder if the people making decisions have any understanding at all of the history of the Middle East..... the things that so many humans have been through, the resentment of western powers interfering in the Middle East in so many ways.

Lastly, as I finished reading this book (and it is a long book but an important read), I asked myself what I have learned. Rather than repeat things I have just written, I will summarize by saying that WAR is not the solution to anything. War is in many ways the easy way out of a situation. It is much easier to start bombing and shooting at perceived enemies than to try to understand the issues on both sides, to talk about them, to respectfully seek alternatives to war.

How many of us have ever really asked "Why the "terrorists" are doing what they do. How have they arrived at this point. How much have we contributed to their current position. "

And I realize how easy it was for the USA to go to war with Iraq making anyone who might question things a "terrorist sympathizer".

All of us need to understand as much as possible so that our votes and voices can be heard advocating solutions other than killing human beings.

Most of the criticism you've read in other reviews (lack of editing, too much detail, lack of proposals, etc) are valid. But the perspective Fisk brings to any analysis of the Middle East is indispensable. It will open the eyes of even well informed followers of the region's politics since 1979, particularly those living in the US.

A long compilation of what a reporter based in the "Middle East" has seen over thirty years, informed by two things: (1) his knowledge of history going back to the 1800s, and (2) his being there -- seeing things personally and taking them personally.

The results:

(1) When things happen, Fisk knows why they happened. We have all seen basketball players who shove their opponents when the ref's back is turned, in order to draw a foul on the other guy for retaliating: the "provocation" technique, as Israeli Prime Minister Sharett referred to it in his diaries. Fisk's long experience and historical view spare us the fate of the poor ref. (He could perhaps have drawn on others' reporting of things he didn't personally see to broaden his view even further.)

(2) We hear from the victims. Obviously, the victims aren't around to tell their side of a murder. Fisk takes their part.

As Fisk looks back on it all, he fundamentally sees the brutality and militarism. That's what the book is about.

Every nation has its share of the blame, but Fisk heaps the greater part of the blame on the stronger (the winners). Not only have they perpetrated more of the brutality up to now, but, by covering it up and silencing the victims, they are preparing future rounds.

The otherwise ironic title, "The Great War for Civilization," in the end represents an effort to tell truth to power and to demand that they behave like civilized people.

This book was highly recommended to me as the one book most likely to shed light on what's really going on in the Middle East, and it delivers: I don't think you'll find a volume (and it IS that) with more gory detail (literally) on the power dynamics, the whys and wherefores and who's-doing-what-to-whoms, in that part of the world.

It's worth noting that Mr. Fisk is as much of a historian as a correspondent here, and he does an excellent job at both. In fact, he is too good in some ways; he feels too much and shares too much detail. I don't think I have ever read a more effective "witness" to history, but often the reader feels as if he's listening to unedited audio tapes of reporting and coverage. There seems to be no editing, no effort to summarize, and he's all over the place topically, hopping from one subject to the next with dizzying regularity.

In a way, I think Fisk does this intentionally. It's clear that he feels a tremendous sense of injustice and indignation at how the press have oversimplified the situation in the region for decades, editing for the sake of clarity when things just aren't that clear. He refuses to do that here, spilling his guts all over the place, really, refusing to "dumb it down" for anyone or anybody. The effect is edifying, but really pretty difficult to get through and an effective soporific; the book can be a great substitute for Lunesta if your prescription's run out. You really have to buckle in to get through all 1000 pages, printed as they are in rather small type.

The main problem here, sadly, is that Fisk has the emotional intelligence of an adolescent boy. His petulant rage over the incalculable wrongs that litter the history and landscape of the region (which are absolutely horrifying) prevent him from presenting his case in a more cogent way. That said, it IS worth reading, as Fisk is clearly an intellectually brilliant man and understands the players involved and the way the pieces of the puzzle fit together as well as anyone alive. If you want to understand the Middle East- as any Westerner alive today should be required to- this is (somewhat unfortunately) your book.

This is a factual, un-biased narrative from a honest and courageous reporter. I loved his autobiographical style along with is objective historical analysis.
No independant and comprehensive study of the middle east conundrum is complete without a read of this book.

Who could but know what blood letting and butchering of human beings is really descriptive without reading this great well researched and historical book. Do not humans understand that they must in the judgment in the trial of ones life, before the Creator and his heavenly holy host to answer the sin of bloodletting, death, destruction, and not be aware of spiritual cognizance as every night dreams we are experience have a life experience truth.

Robert Fisk-- the incredibly skillful and honest, and much honored British journalist--must be added to the short list of required reading on the Middle East, not only for his previous magnum opus, "Pity the Nation," but for this gigantic tome, "The Great War for Civilisation." By "short list" I mean the recent trilogy by Chalmers Johnson (starting with "Blowback" and ending with "Nemesis"), the writings of Lewis Lapham, McGovern and Polk, and a dozen or so others.
The devil is in the details, for Mr. Fisk. As with some of the Vietnam reporting (Michael Herr's "Dispatches," let's say), Fisk's "Great War" is something I can take only in small doses: it's too real and visceral, too
intense, too devasting to the psyche, to stay with for very long at a time. Besides the direct accounts of
battle (and other forms of devastation and insult to the human psyche), I should mention Fisk's tone of appropriately withering scorn for imperial power: for example, he has some choice words for Mr. Blair
and our own former Madame Secretary Albright--either in "Pity the Nation" or "The Great War," I forget
just which.
Regarding Madeleine Albright, I recall discovering--to my dismay, of course--that she believed the
deaths --largely due to malnourishment-- of thousands of Iraqi children during the sanctions imposed upon Iraq by the U.N., between the two Iraq wars, were (I'm paraphrasing from memory) a sad but necessary price to pay.
The moral, in general, of such disclosures and revelations, for me at least, is that even though I am a
voracious reader, rather too-well educated, a poet, philosophy professor, and so forth, I am not all that much
unlike the masses of Americans who are taken in by our sheep-like fourth estate, who in turn are bland
and passive consumers of the smoke-and-mirrors displays of the Bush administration.
I am too accustomed, for instance, to quite intelligent students commenting as follows, as a matter of course: "I have heard reports that our journalists in Iraq concentrate too much on the bad news, while neglecting all the good that our soldiers are doing over there."
Doubtless many of our young men and women in uniform (leaving aside the incredible numbers of mercenaries fighting in Iraq) are well-intentioned, brave, sincere, honest, and good souls. But they are misled.
How often does the American viewer of television get to witness something as honest as Robert McNeill's
recent series, "America at a Crossroads"? Or "Frontline"? Of course I now reveal my liberal bias--shame on
me! ("My bad," as the professional basketball players say.)
Robert Fisk is doing what he was born to do, as his brief biographical revelations recently on C-SPAN have shown: at a very tender age, when his W. W. I. veteran father was revisiting Europe's battle sites with him, he recognized his true vocational calling. He is literate, learned, direct, 'out front', lacking in sham and egocentrism (a refreshing alternative to our gas bag pundits, such as Christopher Hitchins, or Bill O'Reilley, or Tucker Carlson--just to name a duke's mixture of the 'usual suspects').
All I can say in closing is that any reader interested in the mess our country is in, in Iraq, or in the Middle East region, in general--and what person in the United States, what person of good will and a certain degree of maturity, what good citizen, is not interested in that?--such a reader can do no better than to open Mr.
Fisk's latest book and read a few pages.
After all, the only thing worse than burrowing headlong into such tragedy might be to try and ignore it altogether, like the proverbial ostrich. Robert Fisk has helped us all to assume, partially, at least, that proper burden of responsibility.

Robert Fisk's clarity of memory takes a paint stripper to the lies so called western civilization is predominantly composed of. Fear and loathing in the Middle East. Flames of truth characterize the honesty and humanity with which this towering journalist reveals events from behind our propagandistic fog. A must read, a cornerstone of modern history on the scale of Vico, Lawrence and Michelet.

Fisk's journal, and I do mean journal, is a tale almost too massive to believe. How one journalist could have had the experiences related in this book is a tribute to earnest journalism. While overlong and in need of editing, I still found myself reading every word waiting for the next.
Also, of course is the issue that Fisk supplies a necessary corrective to typical Western and biased pro-Israeli history in the US. No one comes out of this book in very good shape--Arabs, palestinians, Israelis, or Americans. For those who really want to know "why do they hate us" I can think of no better place to start.