[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Robert Fisk's book, commented by himself

[Morton K. Brussel]

FYI. The abomination of our war on Iraq; a talk by Robert Fisk. Media  
Lens has remarked that Fisk's own newspaper, The Independent,  has  
been complicit in shielding the population from the horrors of that  
war. --mkb


> Subject: Robert Fisk's book, commented by himself
>
> In case you hadn't seen this....
>
>
>> Sanitised images hide truth about war, says Fisk
>>
>> By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent
>>
>> Published: 24 January 2006
>>
>> The sanitised images of war broadcast on television are a "lethal  
>> weapon" masking atrocities which demonstrate that conflict can  
>> "never be justified," an Independent debate was told last night.
>>
>> "War is not about victory or defeat. It is about the total failure  
>> of human spirit," Robert Fisk, The Independent's Middle East  
>> correspondent, told the debate. "When you see the things I see,  
>> you would never support war ever again."
>>
>> The increasingly chaotic conflict in Iraq is utterly unjustifiable  
>> and a by-product of the same Western thirst for "control, control,  
>> control" of the Middle East's assets and resources that has been  
>> evident for centuries, added Fisk. "We've always gone to the  
>> Middle East to 'liberate' people, taking with us our guns and our  
>> swords, our horses and our helicopters," he said.
>>
>> Fisk, whose new book The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest  
>> of the Middle East has been published by Fourth Estate, said there  
>> could be no lasting settlement in Iraq for as long as the  
>> occupiers remained there.
>>
>> He presented a powerful case for presenting in the media the full  
>> horror of war - images such as the blood that poured over the top  
>> of his shoes in a Baghdad hospital, and the bones he saw where  
>> should have been feet on the legs of a child - a horrific sight  
>> which was edited out in newspaper images of the child.
>>
>> "One thing that unsettles people is the sense that there is a  
>> slightly voyeuristic element to seeing people suffering,"  
>> suggested Simon Kelner, The Independent's editor-in-chief, who  
>> chaired the debate. Fisk replied that film-makers saw fit to  
>> include the full gore of war in productions such as Saving Private  
>> Ryan and there was no reason why news broadcasts should be any  
>> different. Most of the 600-strong audience at Manchester Town Hall  
>> agreed when the issue was put to the vote.
>>
>> Fisk, who has covered the Middle East for The Independent for 19  
>> years, described the difficulties of covering the current anarchy  
>> in Iraq. "Can we do any more than put together the little tiny  
>> pieces?" he asked. "Sometimes I think what we see of the Iraqi war  
>> is what we see on the roof of a Renaissance cathedral after a  
>> massive earthquake in northern Italy; little tiny bits of colour,  
>> and we try to string them together to make sense."
>>
>> Called to one atrocity, he managed to take a picture of a baby on  
>> fire and spend 20 seconds with an eyewitness before 40 Iraqis were  
>> "beating like fury on the roof of the car" and he left. "Mouse  
>> reporting, they call it. Many of us are asking, 'Are the risks  
>> worth it?'" he said.
>>
>> Those reporters who must settle for "hotel journalism", reporting  
>> from their hotel rooms because "there are armed men to protect  
>> them, who tell them they can't leave," owed it to their readers to  
>> say as much.
>>
>> Fisk was asked how he preserved his sanity over 30 years covering  
>> the Middle East. "You have to tell yourself that you don't come  
>> here to die, you come here to report," he said. "It is becoming  
>> increasingly difficult to justify risking one's life [while  
>> sometimes feeling you are not] having an effect. I sometimes  
>> wonder if I should have chosen something safer and different and  
>> maybe happier, and I wonder if my 30 years in the Middle East  
>> wasn't a curse. Well, if so, my book is the story of that curse."
>>
>> The sanitised images of war broadcast on television are a "lethal  
>> weapon" masking atrocities which demonstrate that conflict can  
>> "never be justified," an Independent debate was told last night.
>>
>> "War is not about victory or defeat. It is about the total failure  
>> of human spirit," Robert Fisk, The Independent's Middle East  
>> correspondent, told the debate. "When you see the things I see,  
>> you would never support war ever again."
>>
>> The increasingly chaotic conflict in Iraq is utterly unjustifiable  
>> and a by-product of the same Western thirst for "control, control,  
>> control" of the Middle East's assets and resources that has been  
>> evident for centuries, added Fisk. "We've always gone to the  
>> Middle East to 'liberate' people, taking with us our guns and our  
>> swords, our horses and our helicopters," he said.
>>
>> Fisk, whose new book The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest  
>> of the Middle East has been published by Fourth Estate, said there  
>> could be no lasting settlement in Iraq for as long as the  
>> occupiers remained there.
>>
>> He presented a powerful case for presenting in the media the full  
>> horror of war - images such as the blood that poured over the top  
>> of his shoes in a Baghdad hospital, and the bones he saw where  
>> should have been feet on the legs of a child - a horrific sight  
>> which was edited out in newspaper images of the child.
>>
>> "One thing that unsettles people is the sense that there is a  
>> slightly voyeuristic element to seeing people suffering,"  
>> suggested Simon Kelner, The Independent's editor-in-chief, who  
>> chaired the debate. Fisk replied that film-makers saw fit to  
>> include the full gore of war in productions such as Saving Private  
>> Ryan and there was no reason why news broadcasts should be any  
>> different. Most of the 600-strong audience at Manchester Town Hall  
>> agreed when the issue was put to the vote.
>>
>> Fisk, who has covered the Middle East for The Independent for 19  
>> years, described the difficulties of covering the current anarchy  
>> in Iraq. "Can we do any more than put together the little tiny  
>> pieces?" he asked. "Sometimes I think what we see of the Iraqi war  
>> is what we see on the roof of a Renaissance cathedral after a  
>> massive earthquake in northern Italy; little tiny bits of colour,  
>> and we try to string them together to make sense."
>>
>> Called to one atrocity, he managed to take a picture of a baby on  
>> fire and spend 20 seconds with an eyewitness before 40 Iraqis were  
>> "beating like fury on the roof of the car" and he left. "Mouse  
>> reporting, they call it. Many of us are asking, 'Are the risks  
>> worth it?'" he said.
>>
>> Those reporters who must settle for "hotel journalism", reporting  
>> from their hotel rooms because "there are armed men to protect  
>> them, who tell them they can't leave," owed it to their readers to  
>> say as much.
>>
>> Fisk was asked how he preserved his sanity over 30 years covering  
>> the Middle East. "You have to tell yourself that you don't come  
>> here to die, you come here to report," he said. "It is becoming  
>> increasingly difficult to justify risking one's life [while  
>> sometimes feeling you are not] having an effect. I sometimes  
>> wonder if I should have chosen something safer and different and  
>> maybe happier, and I wonder if my 30 years in the Middle East  
>> wasn't a curse. Well, if so, my book is the story of that curse."
> http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article340618.ece

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