[Peace-discuss] Iraq and Anarqi

[Morton K. Brussel]

Published on Thursday, October 13, 2005 by The Independent
Iraq has Descended into Anarchy, says Fisk
by Nigel Morris

Most of Iraq is in a state of anarchy, with insurgents controlling  
parts of Baghdad just half a mile from the so-called Green Zone, an  
Independent debate was told last night.

Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, whose new  
book The Great War for Civilisation: the Conquest of the Middle East  
has just been published by 4th Estate, painted a picture of deepening  
chaos and misery in Iraq more than two years after Saddam Hussein was  
toppled.

He said that the "constant, intensive involvement" in the Middle East  
by the West was a recurring pattern over centuries and was the reason  
why "so many Muslims in the Middle East hate us". He added: " We can  
close doors on history. They can't."

Fisk doubted the sincerity of Western leaders' commitment to bringing  
democracy to Iraq and said a lasting settlement in the country was  
impossible while foreign troops remained. "In the Middle East, they  
would like some of our democracy, they would like a couple of boxes  
off the supermarket shelves of human rights as well. But I think they  
would also like freedom from us."

Recalling the sight of an immense US convoy rolling into the  
country's capital, he said: "A superpower has a visceral need to  
project military power. We can go to Baghdad, so we will go to Baghdad."

He told the debate in London: "The Americans must leave Iraq and they  
will leave Iraq, but they can't leave Iraq and that is the equation  
that turns sand to blood. At some point, they will have to talk to  
the insurgents.

"But I don't know how, because those people who might be negotiators   
the United Nations, the Red Cross  their headquarters have been blown  
up. The reality now in Iraq is the project is finished. Most of Iraq,  
except Kurdistan, is in a state of anarchy."

He said that the portrayal of Iraq by Western leaders  of efforts to  
introduce democracy, including Saturday's national vote on the  
country's proposed constitution  was "unreal" to most of its  
citizens. In Baghdad, children and women were kept at home to prevent  
them from being kidnapped for money or sold into slavery. They faced  
a desperate struggle to find the money to keep generators running to  
provide themselves with electricity. "They aren't sitting in their  
front rooms discussing the referendum on the constitution."

With insurgents half a mile from Baghdad's Green Zone, Fisk said the  
danger to reporters from a brutal insurgency that did not respect  
journalists was increasing. "Every time I go to Baghdad it's worse,  
every time I ask myself how we can keep going. Because the real  
question is  is the story worth the risk?"

He attacked television reporters for flinching from depicting the  
everyday bloodshed on the streets of Iraq. "You can go and see Saving  
Private Ryan or Kingdom of Heaven  people have their heads cut off.  
When it comes to real heads being cut off, you can't. I think  
television connives with governments at war." He added: "Newspapers  
can tell you as closely as they can what these horrors are like."

Asked if the "anger and passion" he felt over the events he witnessed  
had affected his objectivity, he said: "When you are at the scene of  
a massacre, you are entitled to feel immense anger and I do."

He rejected suggestions that graphic pictures of the dead in  
newspapers took away their dignity. He said: "My view is the people  
who are dead would want us to record what happened to them."

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
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