Great War for Civilisation The Conquest of the Middle East

Robert Fisk has his detractors, but there aren't many of them that have more knowledge or experience of the Middle East than him. What winds them up is that he has no time for partisan spin - killing lots of people is killing lots of people, full stop, no matter who does it. Journalists like him, in the days of 'embedded reporters', are a rare breed. He has risked his life many times to talk to real people on the ground and get a story - some of the stories in the book bring this home, as Fisk dodges bullets and gets badly beaten up. (Channel 4's Jon Snow also puts in an appearance, in his earlier career.) Worth remembering next time some talking head is pontificating from the safety of London or Washington about the future of countries they've never been to. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect we'll never see another book like this - it's unlikely that there'll be a future reporter who'll spend the best part of his or her life in a region, since they all want to be editors or news anchors, and getting shot at just isn't worth it.

Does the book have flaws? Well, it's big, and heavy to cart about. I would say that it could have been edited differently, but actually I think it fits together quite well - themes recur and the reader gets a very good sense of Fisk's despair at the continuing tragedies of the region and its peoples - the victims of external interference and internal dictatorships. Contrary to popular belief, Fisk makes no excuses for Saddam and his ilk, but neither does he pull any punches in criticising western and Israeli governments.

The connection of the whole thing to the First World War, in which Fisk's father served, seems odd at first, and isn't essential to the 'plot'. It does reveal something about Fisk's personal background and personality though, which is interesting enough.

Overall, a very great and important book.