--- product_id: 634440313 title: "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East" brand: "robert fisk" price: "¥9045" currency: JPY in_stock: true reviews_count: 5 url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/634440313-the-great-war-for-civilisation-the-conquest-of-the-middle store_origin: JP region: Japan --- # The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East **Brand:** robert fisk **Price:** ¥9045 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by robert fisk - **How much does it cost?** ¥9045 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.jp](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/634440313-the-great-war-for-civilisation-the-conquest-of-the-middle) ## Best For - robert fisk enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted robert fisk brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #832,007 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #98 in Terrorism (Books) #226 in Middle East History #6,259 in Asian History (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,335 Reviews | ## Images ![The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71JLTGEPomL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A sparrow tells an uncaring world from a plaintive branch *by D***O on Reviewed in Canada on 14 November 2008* "...war is a security organization...because it succeeds...in inventing, real enemies to kill, and...if...not for war, society would...leave men defenseless before...a purely internal foe" ("The Psychoanalysis of War," Franco Fornari, 1974).A scribe at Britain's "The Independent," English born Robert Fisk, (1946- ), Ph.D., Political Science, LL.D., et al, has resided in Beirut, Lebanon since 1976. His compassionate book, "The Great War for Civilisation" (2006), is based on 16 years of eyewitness reporting on "The Conquest of the Middle East," culled from over 350,000 various documents. It is almost 1,400 pages, replete with 10 maps, bibliography, exhaustive notes and a chronology.Fisk's coverage of Israel's influence here and the American invasion of Iraq is provocative, because nobody wants to "damage the peace process"... Arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, whom the author questioned, don't speak out against improprieties Israel commits with ordnances because they are a valued customer. And "The Independent" did a fortnight study of American military stocks, ascertaining that thousands of armour, tanks and planes were grabbed by Israel during two decades. Officers apprised Fisk that the omnipotent Israeli lobby doesn't tolerate captious politicians, who treasure their longevity in government, therefore allowing Israel to anytime snatch more than the minimum $14 million in arms required for congressional notification, uncontested and unreported because it is "classified." The most powerful such lobby group is the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, which former doyen of, Denis Ross, plus three other Jews--if they were all Arabs, someone would've taken notice--became head negotiators of in the latter 1990's "peace envoy." The American press was reticent about this bias, but the Israeli press welcomed them.Fisk pondered, not just the "how" and "who," but the "why," behind "9/11," the 2001 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York City. Also, he says, just after this event, on September 16, no British or American newspaper "...would recall the fact that on that date in 1982, Israel's Phalangist militia allies started their three-day orgy of rape and knifing and murder in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila. It followed an Israeli invasion of Lebanon...which cost the lives of 17,500 Lebanese and Palestinians, almost all of them civilians...more than five times the death toll in the September 11th, 2001 attacks.... No, Israel was not to blame for what happened..." The author explains that it was Osama bin Laden, whom he first met in 1993, and al-Qaeda, who were the perpetrators, making their statement regarding how they felt about America's involvement in the Middle East--not because "they hate our democracy." None came from Iraq, which U.S. President George W. Bush's aggressors invaded, seeking "weapons of mass destruction" which never existed, through their "war on terror."Fisk documents America's pitiless sanctions and civilian killings--"collateral damage"--in Iraq. In Baghdad, citizens' looting is not precluded by U.S. forces, who protect only the Ministry of the Interior, with its intelligence info, and the Ministry of Oil--go figure.It is Israel, who dispossessed 750,000 Palestinians of their land--and "right to exist," in the West Bank, in 1948, who now dictates American foreign policy in the Middle East, weakening Arab voices. Get "The Great War for Civilisation" by Robert Fisk, where a sparrow tells an uncaring world from a plaintive branch. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A brilliant, comprehensive and exhaustive read *by S***N on Reviewed in the United States on 9 August 2006* Before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, most Americans, indeed most people living outside of the region that sits between the border of western China and Morocco's coastline were not interested about bespeckled patch of deserts, mountains, valleys, gorges that had been plagued with violence since time immemorial. However, as the United States' wild forays into Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 came into being, much of that amnesia and blithe disregard dissipated. With that being said, journalist Robert Fisk of the UK newspaper, the Independent, has written an enormous tome that chronicles the Middle East's history and its entanglement with the great "civilised countries" of the West. While many authors have painted the region with a thick brush that simply labels the entire Middle East as a terrorist haven, Fisk is much more sensible to get past the antiquated cliches and banal platitudes that often hamper the ability for many of us to have a clear understanding about a region many of us are quite, emotionally, indifferent to.Fisk's book begins with his trip to Afghanistan in 1996. After being led from checkpoint to checkpoint, Fisk is presented to none other than Osama bin Laden himself. He holds a cordial interview with him while bin Laden goes on about his latest criticism of the West as Fisk faithfully takes note of his posture, tone, and least to say, his words; the most chilling of which makes one's hair rise: "One of our brothers had a dream..." Fisk's book is essentially about his travels along the Middle Eastern countries and occasionally taps open the history book. His book is revealing and written with excellence and empathy. As he traveled to Afghanistan to cover the war, with the Soviets in 1979, not 2001, he captures the brutality of the Afghan rebels who mercilessly slaughter Soviet teachers, hanging them from telephone wires. Yet it was not all conquest and satellite states for the Soviet Union as Fisk notes, "a modern educational system in which girls as well as boys would go to school, at which young women did not have to wear the veil, in which science and literature would be taught alongside Islam...."It had been trying to create a secular, equal society in the villages around Jalalabad" (page 58).The next several chapters spans and chronographs the Iranian revolution and its subsequent struggles in fending off the invasion by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which was unconditionally supported by the West. Fisk documents the brutal torture methods employed by the United States' second greatest ally in the Middle East on its domestic population and how the US turned a blind eye against the atrocities. Of course, the author has no kind words to spare for the West's adored "Butcher of Baghdad", constantly and rightly so, castigating him and reminding us of his victims. The Islamic "tribunals" set up by Iran are also extensively mentioned with the US, bizarrely enough, condemning Iran. Yet the United States has no words of regret when it came to downing an Iranian passenger jet during the Iran-Iraq war despite the fact evidence proved an otherwise intentional attack.Perhaps Fisk's most emotionally driven part of the book is Chapter 10, entitled "The First Holocaust", known much better as the Armenian Genocide. Being an Armenian myself I was surprised to find an entire chapter solely devoted to the near elimination of the Armenian people in 1915, when the Ottoman Turkish government sought to cleanse its minority problem by systematic rape, mass murder, and deportations through the scorching deserts of Syria. Fisk's fervent arguments are seen most pronounced in this chapter as he lambastes the world media which often refers to the event with simple euphemisms: "tragedy", "massacres", and "deportations". He documents how even many Jewish leaders, notably Shimon Peres, refuse to acknowledge the plight of the Armenians as a Genocide. He condemns the present day Turkish government for giving its ridiculous excuses and for denying its own past and goes further to condemn those countries who refuses to do it because of their close relations with the NATO member. Fisk asks us what would happen if world leaders would similarly use those terms to describe the Jewish Holocaust and refer it to a disputed event...of course we all know what would happen if they did.Of course no Middle Eastern book can be written without mentioning the Palestine-Israel conflict. Three chapters are devoted and while Fisk acknowledges the brutality of the Palestinian suicide bombers he turns and asks why Israel's actions often go uncritcized by the media and by world leaders. He does an exceptional job in not only this section but the entire book by naming for us the once nameless, the victims who weren't famous partisan leaders or known diplomats but those who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. By doing this, he allows us to at least place some sympathy so that those who perished in a cell in Iraq's torture pens do not remain a statistic; only to be cited endlessly twenty years later as a rational for war. He doesn't allow us to forget Israel's indiscrimante military raids which lead to the deaths of thousands and notes the number of UN resolutions it has violated, including building illegal settlements across the West Bank and Gaza. He recognizes the violence committed by the Palestinians but also forces us to take a look and scrutinize Israel's questionable ethics in dealing with the Palestinians.Fisk's book also contains no praise for the George W. Bush administration, especially its botched invasions of not only Iraq but also Afghanistan. He records the US's reckless trampling of Iraq against its former ally, Saddam and the subsequent looting that took place after Saddam fell as the administration obliviously pointed to it as an example of new found liberty. His work chronicles the Middle East from the 20th century and its frequent interventions by the French, British, and Americans whom constantly change the region's political landscape each time it reconfigures itself to be incongruent with their interests. It is poigant, shocking at times, and he does not spare us from the bloody carnage that has been wrought upon the area for decades and which will most probably continue to do as years pass by as we idlely watch it change all over again. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Robert Fisk:a one-man demolition crew *by D***N on Reviewed in Germany on 27 February 2009* Here is an outstanding work of truly epic proportion - more ambitious, more impressive, more profound than anything that has been published by political scientists, historians or critical observers in recent decades."The Great War for Civilization" by British journalist Robert Fisk is a stupendous achievement from the pen of a man who distinguishes himself by an impeccable sense of justice, an unswerving commitment to human rights and an undauntable courage in the teeth of adversity and deprecation. With the possible exception of Edward Said, who has written on the same subject, Fisk has no peer. He is a one-man demolition crew in that he relentlessly demolishes the prevalent myths and ideologies that have long obfuscated the view of Western policy-makers when dealing with the nations of the Middle East. He exposes their hypocrisy and partiality when they take sides in the Jewish-Palestinian conflict and obtusely favor Israel. He plausibly explains the reason why the West, especially the USA and their client state Israel, have become hated and despised throughout the Arab world: too many crimes committed, too many innocents killed,too many promises broken. Fisk sweeps away the popular misconception about the causes of the sveltering problems in the region and sets the historical record straight.What is most valuable perhaps is his critial look at the fuzzy concept of "the war against terrorism", which demonstrably serves the ideological purposes of those who, under the pretext of fighting terror, attempt to impose their own political and cultural standards on people who don't want them. As the author makes clear, the explosiveness of the situation is not so much attributable to an endemic unruliness or aggressiveness of the Muslim population as to their endless sufferings at the hands of Western colonialists and imperialists. It is oppression and humiliation that have sown the seeds for violence. It is the many interventions and military campaigns of the US and their allies in Iraq, Palestine, Libya, lebanon and Afghanistan that stoke the flames of wrath. While professedly bringing the blessings of peace, justice and stability they have invariably caused bloodshed and wrought havoc.Fisk's book is a real eye-opener which deserves to be translated into all European languages and studied by all readers with a minimal interest in historical truth. If it is a truism that there are always two (or more) sides to a given human problem, Fisk is to be applauded for presenting the other side. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.jp/products/634440313-the-great-war-for-civilisation-the-conquest-of-the-middle](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/634440313-the-great-war-for-civilisation-the-conquest-of-the-middle) --- *Product available on Desertcart Japan* *Store origin: JP* *Last updated: 2026-09-15*