30 Years in the Making...

Anyone even remotely familiar with journalism and the Middle East will know that Robert Fisk is unquestionably the doyen of all journalists in the region. He can draw on being there "at the coal-face" for some 30 years. Who hasn't he met and at what conflict in the region hasn't he been an eye-witness.

Many don't like Fisk. One may not always agree with him but one cannot ignore his knowledge, expertise, insightful analysis and ability and capacity to take on what many would rather not. No comfort-zones for Fisk. It will be told as it is - with no prisoners taken!

With such an extensive experience to draw on, Fisk has now just had published [recently arrived in nearest your book store] The Great War for Civilisation. No lesser other doyen in journalism, Phillip Knightley, reviews the Fisk book here. At 1366 pages it would appear to be book well-timed to be read over the summer vacation-break.

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The Pentagon's eye-popping spending....and waste!

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Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Mahler's Prodigal Son

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