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• Thursday, December 15, 2005 10:36 PM

  Fisking the Truth

  Robert Fisk is entitled to write a book of his opinions on the Middle East. But anyone who believes they are reading little more than that - a collection of his jeremiads fuming over his two favorite devils - Israel and the US - should really find better reading material. For good reason has “to fisk” indeed has become a verb, but hardly with the idea of tearing apart, more with the idea of bending the facts to trash a straw man.

  There is no doubt that Mr. Fisk has been a witness to the terrible events in the Middle East for the last 30 years – and no one should question his courage or his commitment to his ideals. But in an area as complex as the Middle east – where culture, religion, and history color and dictate loyalties stronger than any logic, pretending that everyone dances to the strings of the West, the US, Israel or “fill in your favorite demon” gives a rather narrow view of that region. Worse, the idea that if these “agents” were magically removed from the area that everything would be fine, is equally blind sided.

  Have the great powers behaved badly toward the region? Has the US practiced favoritism toward Israel, turned a blind eye toward the worst excesses of other regimes, and then played “let’s you and him fight” between Iran and Iraq? Sure – all true. But has oil corrupted the area? Has there been no shortage of brutal dictators more than willing to bend the area to their whims? And has religion been used to radicalize and control as much as to react to perceived “insults”? All true too. But for Mr. Fisk – this side bad – that side good is about as nuanced as it gets.

  Sorry – the region may be a mess, but there are many more villains than Mr. Fisk wants to point out. The last straw for me was his opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan to throw out the Taliban. I remember the piece on his near stoning near the border – and though how ironic that he found himself in that situation. I am certain Mr. Fisk is wearing a black arm band today as Iraq votes – the idea that something good there could happen no doubt blackens his soul. But for his master tome – I hope it is filed on the shelf near the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in the fabrication and invective section of the library

  —Ironclad Read Ironclad's other letters
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