The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk

Great War for Civilisation : The Conquest of the Middle Eastby Anonymous

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September 16, 2007: '...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. Currently 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...