The Great War for Civilisation
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Ferro, Marc. L’Information en uniforme: Propagande, désinformation, censure, et manipulation. Paris: Editions Ramsay, 1991.
Said, Edward. Covering Islam. New York: Pantheon Books, 1981.
Thomson, Alex. Smokescreen: The Media, the Censors, the Gulf. London: Spellmount, 1992.
Zaidan, Ahmad Muaffaq. The “Afghan Arabs”: Media at Jihad. Islamabad: Pakistan Futuristics Foundation and Institute, 1999.
1914–1918 War
Churchill, Winston. The Great War, 4 vols. London: George Newnes, The Home Library Book Company, 1933.
Moore, William. The Thin Yellow Line. London: Leo Cooper, 1974.
Oram, Gerard. Worthless Men: Race, Eugenics and the Death Penalty in the British Army During the First World War. London: Francis Boutle, 1998.
Summerskill, Michael. China on the Western Front: Britain’s Chinese Work Force in the First World War. London: Michael Summerskill, 1982.
Select Documents
Arnove, Anthony, ed. Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War. Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 2000.
Aruri, Naser, ed. Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return. London: Pluto Press, 2001.
Asfour, John Mikhail, trans. and ed. When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945–1987. Dunvegan, Ontario: Cormorant Books, 1988.
B’Tselem. Activity of the Undercover Units in the Occupied Territories . Jerusalem: B’Tselem, 1992.
Byrne, Malcolm, and Peter Kornbluh, eds. The Iran–Contra Scandal: A National Security Archive Documents Reader. New York: Norton & Co., 1993.
Catalinotto, John, and Sara Flounders, eds. Metal of Dishonor: How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiersand Civilians with DU Weapons. New York: International Action Center, 1999.
Dadrian, Vahakn N. “The Historical and Legal Interconnections Between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust: From Impunity to Retributive Justice.” Yale Journal of InternationalLaw, Vol. 23, Number 2, Summer 1998.
Documents from the U.S. Espionage Den, compiled by Muslim Students Following the Line of the Imam. Tehran: The Centre for the Publication of the U.S. Espionage Den’s Documents, 1987.
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. The Condition of Human Rights in Egypt. Cairo: EOHR, 1993; Recurrent Detention: Prisoners without Trial. Cairo: EOHR, 1993–94; Freedom of Opinion and Belief: Restrictions and Dilemmas. Cairo: EOHR, 1994; Democracy Jeopardized: Nobody “Passed” the Elections. Cairo: EOHR, 1995.
The Geneva Conventions of August 12 1949. Geneva: ICRC Publications, permanently reprinted; Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. Geneva: ICRC Publications, 1996.
La France en Guerre d’Algérie, sous la direction de Laurent Gervereau, Jean-Pierre Rioux, and Benjamin Stora. Paris: BDIC, 1992.
Girardet, Edward and Jonathan Walter, ed. Afghanistan. Geneva and Dublin: International Centre for Humanitarian Reporting, 1998.
Human Rights in Iraq. Yale University Press, Middle East Watch Books, 1990.
Imperial Gazetteer of India: Afghanistan and Nepal. Oxford: Clarendon Press, c.1910, reprinted Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1979.
Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government . London: The Stationery Office, 2002.
Libya Under Gaddafi. Chicago, Illinois: National Front for the Salvation of Libya, 1992.
MacArthur, Brian, ed. Despatches from the Gulf War. London: Bloomsbury, 1991.
Magnier, Grace. Images des Morisques dans la Littérature et les Arts (“Distorted Images: Anti-Islamic Propaganda at the Time of the Expulsion of the Moriscos”). Zaghouan, Tunisia: Fondation Temimi pour la Recherche Scientifique et l’Information, 1999.
Les Mensonges du Golfe. Montpellier: Arlea-Reporters sans frontières, 1992.
Needless Deaths in the Gulf War: Civilian Casualties During the Air Campaign and Violation of the Laws of War. New York: Middle East Watch Report, 1991.
Peltekian, Katia Minas, comp. Heralding of the Armenian Genocide: Reports in the Halifax Herald 1894–1922. Halifax, NS, Canada: Armenian Cultural Association of the Atlantic Provinces, 2000.
Reshtia, Sayed Qassem. The Price of Liberty: The Tragedy of Afghanistan (no publisher listed, 1982).
Sarafian, Ara, comp. United States Official Records of the Armenian Genocide. London: Gomidas Institute, 2004.
The Second Afghan War 1878–80: Official Account. Produced in the Intelligence Branch, Army Headquarters, India. London: John Murray, 1908.
Sifry, Micah L. and Christopher Cerf, eds. The Gulf War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions. London: Times Books/Random House, 1991.
Tears, Blood and Cries: Human Rights in Afghanistan Since the Invasion 1979–1984. New York: Helsinki Watch, 1984.
The Tower Commission Report: The Full Text of the President’s Special Review Board. New York: Bantam Books & Times Books, 1987.
Chronology
570 Birth of Prophet Mohammed
790 Islam will become the dominant religion in the Middle East
1095 First Crusade to “liberate” the Holy Land; there will be seven more over the next 186 years
1187 Salahedin’s victory over the Crusaders at the Battle of Hittin; fall of Jerusalem to Muslim forces; henceforth the Middle East will be ruled by caliphates, including the Fatimids, Mamelukes and Ottomans
1798–1801 Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition
1914 4 August, outbreak of the First World War
1915 British and Commonwealth troops land at Gallipoli Start of the Armenian Holocaust; murder of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks British forces besieged at Kut al-Amara, Mesopotamia by the Ottoman Turkish army Turks begin hanging Arabs in Beirut for demanding independence
1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement between France and Britain to share Syria, Jordan, Iraq and most of the Arabian peninsula
1917 Balfour Declaration giving British support for “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” General Sir Stanley Maude enters Baghdad after British invasion of Mesopotamia (Iraq); a subsequent Iraqi insurgency against British rule costs thousands of lives General Sir Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem, routing Ottoman Turkish forces
1918 President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points Damascus falls to the Allies; King Faisal in Damascus 11 November armistice ends the First World War
1919 Treaty of Versailles Britain awarded Mandates for Palestine and Iraq; France awarded Syria
1920 French General Henri Gouraud creates Lebanon from Syrian territory Treaty of Sèvres negotiated between the Ottoman empire and the Allies (with the exception of Russia and the United States) agreed to the autonomy of Kurdistan, but was neither ratified nor implemented Ottoman empire collapses French eject Faisal from Damascus
1921 Hashemites become kings in Transjordan and Iraq 1936 Arab revolt in Palestine
1939 3 September, outbreak of the Second World War
1941 Overthrow of Rashid Ali’s pro-German regime in Baghdad Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini travels to Berlin
1942 Arab and Jews fight together in Palestine Brigade at el-Alamein
1945 8 May, end of the Second World War in Europe and Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews
1948 Creation of State of Israel; 750,000 Palestinian Arabs ejected from their land
1954 Start of Algerian war of independence against France
1956 Suez crisis; Britain, France and Israel invade Egypt after Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal
1962 Monarchy overthrown in Iraq Algeria wins independence from France
1967 Six Day War; Israel occupies Gaza, West Bank, Golan and Sinai
1968 UN Security Council Resolution 242 demands withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territory in return for security of all states in the region
1973 Yom Kippur War; Israel defeats Egyptian–Syrian forces
1975 Start of Lebanese civil war
1977 President Sadat of Egypt makes peace with Israel
1978 First Israeli invasion of Lebano
n Saddam Hussein takes over Baath Party in Iraq
1979 Shah of Iran overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution Soviet Union invades Afghanistan; the start of a ten-year occupation by Russian troops Assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
1980 Osama bin Laden raises an Arab legion to fight the Soviet Army With America’s tacit support, Iraq invades Iran at the start of an eight-year war in which gas will be used in mass attacks for the first time since the First World War
1982 Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon 16 to 18 September, massacre of up to 1,700 Palestinian civilians after Israeli defence minister Ariel Sharon sends Israel’s Lebanese militia allies into the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila to destroy “terrorists”
1983 23 October, suicide bombing of U.S. Marine Headquarters in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. personnel
1986 First Palestinian intifada against Israeli occupation
1988 USS Vincennes shoots down Iranian Airbus passenger airliner over Gulf with the loss of 290 Lives Iran sues for peace with Iraq December, a bomb destroys U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, with the loss of 270 lives
1990 Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait; start of UN sanctions against Iraq which in the next eight years will cause the deaths of 500,000 children
1991 U.S.-led Western and Arab forces liberate Kuwait
1992 Algerian army demands suspension of democratic elections in advance of Islamic party victory; start of eight-year “civil” war in which at least 150,000 Algerians will die Outbreak of the Bosnian war
1993 September, Oslo Agreement between Israel and the PLO
1995 Yassir Arafat enters Gaza
1996 Osama bin Laden moves from Sudan to Afghanistan
1998 In Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden announces the creation of al-Qaeda, dedicated to the expulsion of Western forces from Muslim lands
2000 Israeli forces retreat from southern Lebanon after 22-year occupation September, second Palestinian Intifada
2001 11 September, suicide pilots destroy the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon at a loss of nearly 3,000 lives; President Bush and Prime Minister Blair announce they are fighting a “war on terror” October, United States begins bombardment of Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden forces, culminating in the overthrow of the Taliban regime
2003 March, Anglo–U.S. invasion of Iraq 9 April, U.S. occupation of Baghdad 28 April, U.S. troops kill 14 protesters in Fallujah; start of the insurrection against U.S. occupying forces 12 December, capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq
2004 U.S. forces twice lay siege to the Iraqi city of Fallujah; war between U.S. forces and Iraqi Shia militia of Muqtada al-Sadr
2005 Up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the start of the invasion and by midSummer more than 1,700 American troops; Iraq elects its first government in 30 years but descends into anarchy with U.S. forces repeatedly bombing Iraqi insurgents. Thousands of civilians—Iraqis, Western journalists, aid workers and Western mercenaries—are held hostage and many are murdered. Yassir Arafat dies; Mahmoud Abbas appointed president in Palestinian elections; Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon announces an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza but Jewish colonies on the occupied Palestinian West Bank continue to expand Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafiq Hariri is murdered in Beirut Syria withdraws the last of its troops from Lebanon under UN Security Council Resolution 1559; UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1968—calling for Israeli withdrawal from occupied land—remains unfulfilled
PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Alfred A. Knopf: Quotation from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Copyright 1923 by Kahlil Gibran and renewed 1951 by administrators C.T.A. of Kahlil Gibran Estate and Mary G. Gibran. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf a division of Random House, Inc.
A. P. Watt Ltd.: Quotation from “Lapis Lazuli” by W. B. Yeats. Reprinted by permission of A. P. Watt, Ltd. on behalf of Michael B. Yeats.
Faber and Faber Ltd.: Quotation from T. S. Eliot’s preface to The Dark Side of the Moon. Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.
Harcourt, Inc.: Quotation from “Grass” from Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg. Copyright © 1918 by Holt, Reinhart and Winston and renewed 1944 by Carl Sandburg. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.
Oxford University Press: Quotation from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, edited and translated by Louis and Aylmer Maude, 1954. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
Random House, Inc.: Quotation from “Epitaph on a Tyrant” copyright 1940 & renewed 1968 by W. H. Auden. Quotation from “Musée des Beaux Arts” copyright 1940 & renewed 1968 by W. H. Auden. Both from Collected Poems by W. H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.
The Society of Authors: Quotation from Major Barbara by G. B. Shaw. Reprinted by permission of The Society of Authors on behalf of the George Bernard Shaw Estate.
ROBERT FISK
The GREAT WAR for CIVILISATION
Bestselling author and journalist Robert Fisk, based in Beirut as Middle East Correspondent of The Independent, has lived in the Middle East for over three decades and holds more British and international journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent. His last book, Pity the Nation, a history of the Lebanon war, was published to great critical acclaim. He was awarded the 2006 Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom.
ALSO BY ROBERT FISK
The Point of No Return:
The Strike Which Broke the British in Ulster
In Time of War:
Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939–1945
Pity the Nation:
The Abduction of Lebanon
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, FEBRUARY 2007
Copyright © 2005 by Robert Fisk
Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Due to limitations of space, permissions to reprint previously published material
can be found following the index.
All maps are drawn by Hardlines, except the Armenian Genocide,
produced by the Armenian National Institute (ANI), Washington, D.C. and the
Nubarian Library, Paris. © ANI, English Edition Copyright 1998.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Fisk, Robert.
The great war for civilisation: the conquest of the Middle East / Robert Fisk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Middle East—History, Military—20th century. 2. Middle East—History, Military—
21st century. 3. War and society—Middle East. 4. Middle East—Colonization.
5. United States—Relations—Middle East. 6. Middle East—Relations—United States.
I. Title.
DS62.8.F53 2005
956.04—dc22
2005049813
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eISBN: 978-0-307-42871-4
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