Robert Fisk: Darkness Falls on the Middle East

[Purveyor]

In Beirut, people are moving out of their homes, just as they have in Baghdad

Published: 24 November 2007

So where do we go from here? I am talking into blackness because there is no electricity in Beirut. And everyone, of course, is frightened. A president was supposed to be elected today. He was not elected. The corniche outside my home is empty. No one wants to walk beside the sea.

When I went to get my usual breakfast cheese manouche there were no other guests in the café. We are all afraid. My driver, Abed, who has loyally travelled with me across all the war zones of Lebanon, is frightened to drive by night. I was supposed to go to Rome yesterday. I spared him the journey to the airport.

It's difficult to describe what it's like to be in a country that sits on plate glass. It is impossible to be certain if the glass will break. When a constitution breaks – as it is beginning to break in Lebanon – you never know when the glass will give way.

People are moving out of their homes, just as they have moved out of their homes in Baghdad. I may not be frightened, because I'm a foreigner. But the Lebanese are frightened. I was not in Lebanon in 1975 when the civil war began, but I was in Lebanon in 1976 when it was under way. I see many young Lebanese who want to invest their lives in this country, who are frightened, and they are right to frightened. What can we do?

Last week, I had lunch at Giovanni's, one of the best restaurants in Beirut, and took out as my companion Sherif Samaha, who is the owner of the Mayflower Hotel. Many of the guests I've had over the past 31 years I have sent to the Mayflower. But Sherif was worried because I suggested that his guests had included militia working for Saad Hariri, who is the son of the former prime minister, murdered – if you believe most Lebanese – by the Syrians on 14 February 2005.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article3191532.ece

[TomInTib]

1. Fisk should be required reading at the State Dept.

KnR

[ixion]

2. Hell, they wouldn't know what to do with the truth

ignorant scum that they are.

[TomInTib]

3. Regrettably, you are all too on the money.

The fact that the State Dept of the (maybe) most influential element around the globe has its head so far up its collective ass.

[tomreedtoon]

4. When was the Middle East NOT dark?

It's a scary damn place. Always has been. Fanatics (and I include Israel along with Jordan, Beirut and the rest in that category) dominate the area. Every time I have ever heard the Middle East mentioned, a death's head "poison" symbol hasn't been far behind. There are no normal people left alive there, only fanatic killers. Only oil is keeping that place alive. If we could finally find an energy source that wouldn't require oil, there would be no reason for the reasonable nations of the world to deal with the place at all.

[nealmhughes]

5. Go back to old Baghadad and Cairo of the 8th and 10th Centuries.

Actually, things weren't "all that bad" by today's standards under the Ottomans. A lot of today's troubles stem from the aftermaths of the Two World Wars with Whitehall drawing lines on maps.

[tomreedtoon]

8. Sorry, my TARDIS is in the shop.

Besides, it seems to me they were just as kill-crazy as today's Middle Easterners. They just didn't have Uzis and RPG launchers under their robes. Also, any females there were worth less than the dirt under their sandals. That has nothing to do with British colonialism and everything to do with their sociology and national character.

[ixion]

6. uh, yeah, gee and there are no fanatics here in the US

:sarcasm: :eyes:

[tomreedtoon]

7. No duh, Mister Sarcasm. But they're the ones in power.

In the Middle East EVERYBODY is a fanatic. Everyone. They all carry knives and guns. Do YOU carry a knife or gun wherever you go? Are you one of those people who believe "an armed society is a polite society?"

No? Well, if you did, the psychotic populations of the Middle East would prove you wrong.

[ixion]

10. poppycock.. not EVERYONE in the ME is fanatic

not even close.

[tomreedtoon]

11. The ones who aren't fanatic...are dead. That's how it works.

Barry Goldwater said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."

His Islamic counterparts who make up the male population of those countries say, "Killing women, children and infidels in the name of Allah is a great way to spend the afternoon."

And if you don't believe that, you haven't been watching anybody's newscasts. Not even the honest non-American ones.

[ixion]

13. I'm sorry, but you're very mistaken

don't buy into the hype.

The vast majority of the people all over the world are simply trying to live their lives in peace.

[PaulaFarrell]

9. I can see that you don't really know much about the area

or you wouldn't make such absurd generalisations. There are actually lots of 'normal people left alive' there. A friend of mine goes to Lebanon regularly, absolutely loves it and its people. To classify an entire region as inhabitated only by 'fanatic killers' makes as much sense as saying the south is inhabitated only by racist rednecks, New York only by prostitutes and junkies, etc. etc. And does your list of 'reasonable nations' include the ones that invade foreign countries on made up pretences? you know, the US, the UK, those ones?

[tomreedtoon]

12. Well, they are.

I live in the South. It IS full of racist rednecks, ultra-religious crazies and drug dealers (who decided to expand their territory from New York streets). And I've been to New York twice and was surprised to get out alive both times.

If I HADN'T gotten out of New York alive, I would have been one of the brain-dead zombies who would say "New York is all right! Visit it now! Brains...brains...brains..."

By the way, have you eaten your quotient of brains today?