Fingerprints Of History
Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed gauge the state of the
world's most troubled region -- the Middle East -- with eminent
author Robert Fisk
03/25/07 "
Al-Ahram"
-- -- - It is Pakistan, not Iran or Iraq, that serves as a
true barometer for the future of the region, according to Robert
Fisk, The Independent 's renowned Middle East correspondent.
This thesis, though novel, is not to be taken lightly. It comes
from a man who has lived in, studied and witnessed the region
for the past three decades. And Pakistan, indeed, is a country
in turmoil.
Fisk, the Beirut-based bestselling and award- winning author,
speaks from experience. He covered the Lebanese civil war, the
Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the two United States-led wars
against Iraq and the post-11 September invasion and subsequent
occupation of Afghanistan. His voice is a "passionate outcry
against the lies and deceit that have sent soldiers to their
deaths and killed tens of thousands of men and women," as the
dustcover of his seminal book, The Great War for Civilisation:
The Conquest of the Middle East, so aptly puts it.
For Fisk to single out Pakistan is an eye- opener, for the
populous predominantly Muslim nation is not even considered by
some to be part of the Middle East proper. Fisk's contention,
however, is that the West is shy to focus on the main game,
preferring instead to concentrate on sideshows such as Iran's
nuclear ambitions, which Fisk reminds whoever listens were first
encouraged and nurtured by the West.
"There is a country in the region that has lots of Taliban
supporters, lots of Al-Qaeda supporters, whose capital city is
in constant chaos and sectarian crisis, and it has got a
[nuclear] bomb -- it's called Pakistan," Fisk told Al-Ahram
Weekly. "But General Musharraf is our (the West's) friend. What
will happen if Musharraf goes? Pakistan is one of the most
fragile and dangerous areas," he ponders ominously. "However, we
direct our attention to another country, Iran, just as we always
do in the Middle East."
Few Westerners are qualified to write an adequate history of the
Middle East, but Fisk is one who is. His first-hand reporting
over three decades much informs his analysis of the social and
political upheavals witnessed in the region during the past 150
years -- upheavals that have been both dramatic and drastic and
entailed much bloodshed and suffering. The ultimate upheaval was
the creation of the State of Israel in the heart of the Arab
world and the dispossession of the Palestinian people in the
process.
Fisk is acutely aware, nonetheless, of a certain basic
continuity experienced across the Middle East in recent history.
The saga of tragedy and betrayal has not been confined to
Palestine. Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan all experienced
the horrors of war and violent turmoil. Fisk is an advocate for
the study of history. "Journalists should not just take
notebooks when covering a story," he insists.
For Fisk, history is personal and the personal is political.
"The knights of the First Crusade," he wrote in his book, The
Great War for Civilisation, "after massacring the entire
population of Beirut, had moved along the very edge of the
Mediterranean towards Jerusalem to avoid the arrows of the Arab
archers; and I often reflected that they must have travelled
over the very Lebanese rocks around which the sea frothed and
gurgled opposite my balcony."
"I have photographs on my apartment walls of the French fleet
off Beirut in 1918 and the arrival of General Henri Gouraud, the
first French mandate governor, who travelled to Damascus and
stood at that most green-draped of tombs in the Ummayad mosque
and, in what must have been one of the most inflammatory
statements in modern Middle East history, told the tomb:
'Saladin, we have returned,'" Fisk muses. "Nowadays, there are
22 times as many Western troops in the Islamic world than there
were before the fall of Jerusalem during the Crusades in 1187,"
Fisk notes.
What about Lebanon now? "Last summer's war between Hizbullah and
Israel was in fact between Iran and America. Lebanon is, as
usual, the battlefield of others. No one is being killed now, so
until now it's okay. However, the situation is very fragile. I
know many Christian families who left their homes in Hamra
Street, moving on to other areas. These are very bad signs. Iran
and America are supporting different sides, and they keep
pushing at this fragile state."
As Fisk notes in his celebrated book Pity the Nation, Lebanon is
a microcosm of the Middle East. "Lebanon is a confessional
society, so if this pushing continues it will split and be
Balkanised. The only solution is for Lebanon to become a modern
state. Leadership qualities, rather than tribal or sectarian or
confessional affiliations, should be [credentials] for top
positions," he told the Weekly. "Thousands of Lebanese children
were sent abroad during the civil war, and they came back
believing in a modern society. They saw the civil war was
ridiculous and childish," he adds.
What about the assassination of Rafiq Al-Hariri? "I believe that
a branch of Syrian Baath Party security assassinated Al-Hariri.
I don't say, however, that [Syrian President] Bashar Al-Assad
was involved. I don't think it was sanctioned from the top. I
was walking on Beirut's corniche, 400 metres away, when it
happened. I got there before anyone and before the police. I saw
Hariri on fire in the street. His socks were burning. And when I
asked one Lebanese who was assassinated, he told me it was
Hariri."
Will the truth of the assassination ever come out? "I think one
reason why the Syrians are cooperating [in the investigation] is
that the Syrians are pretty sure of what exactly happened, for
they have a very good intelligence service. My interpretation is
that it wasn't a state murder. Since the assassination and up
until now I still feel it was a branch of Syrian Baath
security."
What about Iran and Afghanistan? "America failed to achieve its
goals in Afghanistan. There is no democracy there -- warlords
rule. Just like the case in Iraq, the government commands just a
few miles around Kabul. In many situations coalition forces find
themselves outnumbered by hundreds of Taliban fighters," Fisk
notes. "Meanwhile, opium production and exports are higher now
than at any time before. The United Nations said that in 2001,
under Taliban rule, drug production fell by 45 per cent. The
reverse trend happened since the invasion. The situation is not
as bad as Iraq, but it is still bad," he laments. "I often
wonder why we [the West] are there in Afghanistan," he adds.
As for Iran, Fisk is quick to note that Siemens, the giant
German multinational, launched Iran's nuclear programme. It was
the West that encouraged the Shah of Iran to go nuclear: "The
Shah started the nuclear ambitions of Iran. It was also the Shah
who sought nuclear power. It was the West that helped Iran build
the Bushehr nuclear facility. The Shah once said that he would
like to have a [nuclear] bomb because the Soviets and the
Americans had it. Then he was warmly received in the White
House, because he was our policeman in the Gulf," Fisk asserts.
Ironically, it was the Islamist Iranian Revolutionary Guard that
was against Iran going nuclear: "When the Islamic Revolution
took place in Iran, revolutionaries decided to close the nuclear
facility because they said 'it's a work of the devil'." It was
only after the Iran-Iraq war that the Iranian regime became
interested once again in reviving its nuclear programme. As far
as Fisk is concerned, Iran is a critically important Middle
Eastern nation, but is laden with the time-honoured bureaucracy,
red tape and antiquated or parochial perspectives that have long
pulled the region backwards.
Is America the region's engine of progress? Not for Robert Fisk.
Empires and superpowers follow their own agenda: "In Firdous
Square, Baghdad, US marines pulled down the gaunt and massive
statue of Saddam by roping it to an armoured personal carrier.
It toppled menacingly forward from its plinth to hang lengthways
above the ground, right arm still raised in fraternal greetings
to the Iraqi people. It was a symbolic moment in more ways than
one. I stood behind the first man to seize a hatchet and smash
at the imposing grey marble plinth, but within seconds, the
marble had fallen away to reveal a foundation of cheap bricks
and badly cracked cement. That's what the Americans always
guessed Saddam's regime was made of, although they did their
best, in the late 70s and early 80s to arm him and service his
economy and offer him political support -- to turn him into the
very dictator he became," Fisk notes.
Currently, the American empire faces a crisis -- its military
power is failing and it has won over few allies. Fisk sees in
this a repeat cycle of history. "It goes something like this:
Iraqis don't deserve us; our sacrifices are in vain." He
extrapolates: "There is a community of hate on the Internet,"
emanating from the American neoconservative right. Fisk cites
the example of a tongue-in-cheek article published in The Los
Angeles Times entitled "Those ingrate Iraqis". "We liberated
that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the
American people a huge debt of gratitude ... We've endured great
sacrifice to help them," the article quotes US President George
W Bush as saying.
Palestine is a different kettle of fish altogether. "The Islamic
Movement Hamas didn't succeed because we (Western governments)
didn't want them to succeed. We didn't want to talk to them. And
they were under sanctions because the Western governments
believe that those pesky Palestinians elected the wrong people.
Western governments do not want democracy in the Middle East. We
are quite happy to have dictators if they are obedient to us. We
like them when they invade Iran, but not when they invade
Kuwait. We liked Egypt until it nationalised the Suez Canal.
Then we bombed Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. Because we have
ideological as well as oil interests, we try constantly to
refashion the façade that allows us to support various regimes."
Fisk continues: "Western governments want peoples [of the
region] to elect political forces these governments like. The
Palestinians didn't vote for an Islamic republic, rather they
were sick of corruption. The way [Western governments] dealt
with Arafat's regime made it bound to be corrupt. If the
Palestinians had elected people Western governments had wanted
they would have praised this democracy. Western governments and
the European Union didn't want to give money to Hamas. They were
used to giving it to a Palestinian Authority that was
squandering it." Fisk concludes: "From the very beginning I said
Oslo would be a tragedy."
What about the new government of national unity bringing Fatah
and Hamas together? "Should Hamas recognise the State of Israel?
If Israel really wants peace, why don't they sit with Hamas and
have a serious, mature discussion to agree on a formula that
would work? The question is: Do we want peace or not? Why don't
we refer back to UN Security Council Resolution 242 stating that
Israel should withdraw from all the territories occupied in
1967?"
Are there other hidden hands in the region's politics? The New
Yorker 's Seymour Hersh devotes much time and energy to the role
of the Saudis. "By adopting the rigidity of Wahabism the royal
family [in Saudi Arabia] found itself in an extraordinary
position where they were abiding by the codes of an institution
that believes that you should fight corruption, but never
overthrow your rulers. So the whole system of the Saudi
government walks this tightrope," Fisk muses.
Meanwhile, "Saudi money is going to the Taliban, to our friend
General Pervez Musharraf, and it went to Bin Laden." Fisk
concludes, tongue-in-cheek: "And money buys respect."
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly
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