Published on
Monday, November 23, 2015
by
The Independent
Whoa There, David Cameron! Haste and Rhetoric Is No Recipe for Peace
Reactions to Paris and Mali have been militaristic rhetoric brought about by
ignorance and refusal to understand the injustices of the Middle East
by
Robert Fisk
Prime Minister David Cameron walking with French President Francois
Hollande. (Photo: PA)
Eisenhower famously sent some brusque advice to Anthony Eden in 1956 when he
decided that Britains deceitful war in Egypt should come to an end. Whoa,
boy! were his words. And they should be repeated now to the politicians,
historians and other nincompoops who regard themselves as the soothsayers of
eternal war.
Each morning, I awake to find another Hollywood horror being concocted by
our secret policemen or our public relations-inspired leaders. Germanys top
spy warns us of a Terrorist World War I accept his expertise, of course,
because Germany has itself proved rather efficient at starting world wars
while a perfectly sane and otherwise brilliant historian compares Europes
agony to the fall of the Roman Empire. The Paris killings are now supposed
to have changed Paris for ever or changed France for ever. I would
accept that the collaboration of General Pétain with Nazi Germany changed
France for ever but the atrocities in Paris this month simply cannot be
compared with the German occupation of 1940. That most tiresome of French
philosophers, Bernard-Henri Lévy, tells us that Isis are Fascislamists.
Oddly, I dont remember the same Mr Lévy telling us that the avowedly
Christian Lebanese killers of up to 1,700 Palestinian civilians in the
Beirut Sabra-Shatila refugee camps of 1982 Israels vicious Lebanese
militia allies were Fascichristians. This was a terrorist act with
which I was all too familiar. With two journalist colleagues, I walked among
the butchered and raped corpses of the dead. The American-armed and funded
Israeli army watched the slaughter and did nothing. Yet not a single
Western politicians announced that this had changed the Middle East for
ever. And if 1,700 innocents can be murdered in Beirut in 1982 without
world war being declared, how can President François Hollande announce
that France is at war after 130 innocents were massacred?
Yet, now the poor and huddled masses of the Middle East, according to my
friend Niall Ferguson, are the Goths flooding towards ancient Rome. Ferguson
admits he doesnt know enough about fifth century Roman history to be able
to quote Romans on the subject. But the Romans endowed their newly conquered
peoples with Roman citizenship; and Niall might at least have bothered to
study the third century when the new Roman emperor, Caesar Marcus Julius
Philippus Augustus, came from Syria. He was born about 30 miles from
Damascus and was called Philip the Arab. But lets not allow even modern
history to get in the way of our desire for revenge.
Take Mali and last weeks killings. The French intervened there in January
2013, after Islamists took over the north of Mali and prepared to advance on
the capital, Bamako. Field Marshal Hollande, as he was satirised in the
French press, sent in his lads to destroy the terrorists, who were
imposing their revolting Islamic punishments on civilians, without
mentioning that the violence was also part of a Tuareg-Malian government
civil war. By the end of January, reports spoke of Frances Malian military
allies killing civilians in a wave of ethnic reprisals. The French defence
minister (then, as now, Jean-Yves Le Drian) admitted that urban guerrilla
warfare was very complicated to manage.
By September, the Islamists were murdering Malians who had co-operated with
the French. Since France was already declaring victory against the
terrorists, few paid attention to the spokesman for the very same
Islamists when he announced that our enemy is France, which works with the
army of Mali, of Niger, of Senegal, of Guinea, of Togo, against Muslims
all these countries are our enemies and we are going to treat them like
enemies.
Which makes last weeks massacre in Bamako less incomprehensible. And for
those who believe that European soldiers who go clanking around African
countries are not going to provoke revenge from those of Malian origin, note
how we virtually ignored the background of the Isis killer of the French
policewoman and of four French Jews at the Paris supermarket last January.
Amedy Coulibaly was born in France to Malian Muslim parents.
And now lets read this report on Mali from early 2013: that French
warplanes are continuing their attacks on suspected rebel camps, command
posts, logistic bases and terrorist vehicles in northern Mali. In recent
days, officials said, they hit targets in the Timbuktu and Gao regions,
including a dozen strikes in a 24-hour period ... Replace Timbuktu and Gao
with Raqqa and Idlib and this is the same soup were being served up today
from Paris (and Moscow) about air assaults on Isis and into which PR Dave
himself now wishes to lead our miniature air force.
Our reaction? All rhetoric, of course, brought about by our ignorance, our
refusal to understand the injustices of the Middle East, our idleness in
addressing conflict with political plans and objectives. If we could apply
the whoa, boy advice today, it must be with an entirely new approach to
the cult mafia that exists in the Middle East. A world conference on the
region, perhaps, along the lines of the 1945 San Francisco conference where
statesmen created a United Nations that would (and did) prevent more world
wars. And for refugees, an offer like the Nansen refugee passport for the
millions of destitute and homeless after the 1914-18 war, accepted by 50
nations.
Instead we blather on about the apocalypse, terrorist world wars and Ancient
Rome. To our very own PR Dave, I can only repeat: whoa, boy!
© 2014 The Independent
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper. He
is the author of many books on the region, including The Great War for
Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.
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Published on
Monday, November 23, 2015
by
The Independent
Whoa There, David Cameron! Haste and Rhetoric Is No Recipe for Peace
Reactions to Paris and Mali have been militaristic rhetoric brought about by
ignorance and refusal to understand the injustices of the Middle East
by
Robert Fisk
6 Comments
Prime Minister David Cameron walking with French President Francois
Hollande. (Photo: PA)
Eisenhower famously sent some brusque advice to Anthony Eden in 1956
when he decided that Britains deceitful war in Egypt should come to an end.
Whoa, boy! were his words. And they should be repeated now to the
politicians, historians and other nincompoops who regard themselves as the
soothsayers of eternal war.
Each morning, I awake to find another Hollywood horror being
concocted by our secret policemen or our public relations-inspired leaders.
Germanys top spy warns us of a Terrorist World War I accept his
expertise, of course, because Germany has itself proved rather efficient at
starting world wars while a perfectly sane and otherwise brilliant
historian compares Europes agony to the fall of the Roman Empire. The Paris
killings are now supposed to have changed Paris for ever or changed
France for ever. I would accept that the collaboration of General Pétain
with Nazi Germany changed France for ever but the atrocities in Paris this
month simply cannot be compared with the German occupation of 1940. That
most tiresome of French philosophers, Bernard-Henri Lévy, tells us that Isis
are Fascislamists.
Oddly, I dont remember the same Mr Lévy telling us that the
avowedly Christian Lebanese killers of up to 1,700 Palestinian civilians in
the Beirut Sabra-Shatila refugee camps of 1982 Israels vicious Lebanese
militia allies were Fascichristians. This was a terrorist act with
which I was all too familiar. With two journalist colleagues, I walked among
the butchered and raped corpses of the dead. The American-armed and funded
Israeli army watched the slaughter and did nothing. Yet not a single
Western politicians announced that this had changed the Middle East for
ever. And if 1,700 innocents can be murdered in Beirut in 1982 without
world war being declared, how can President François Hollande announce
that France is at war after 130 innocents were massacred?
Yet, now the poor and huddled masses of the Middle East, according
to my friend Niall Ferguson, are the Goths flooding towards ancient Rome.
Ferguson admits he doesnt know enough about fifth century Roman history to
be able to quote Romans on the subject. But the Romans endowed their newly
conquered peoples with Roman citizenship; and Niall might at least have
bothered to study the third century when the new Roman emperor, Caesar
Marcus Julius Philippus Augustus, came from Syria. He was born about 30
miles from Damascus and was called Philip the Arab. But lets not allow
even modern history to get in the way of our desire for revenge.
Take Mali and last weeks killings. The French intervened there in January
2013, after Islamists took over the north of Mali and prepared to advance on
the capital, Bamako. Field Marshal Hollande, as he was satirised in the
French press, sent in his lads to destroy the terrorists, who were
imposing their revolting Islamic punishments on civilians, without
mentioning that the violence was also part of a Tuareg-Malian government
civil war. By the end of January, reports spoke of Frances Malian military
allies killing civilians in a wave of ethnic reprisals. The French defence
minister (then, as now, Jean-Yves Le Drian) admitted that urban guerrilla
warfare was very complicated to manage.
By September, the Islamists were murdering Malians who had co-operated with
the French. Since France was already declaring victory against the
terrorists, few paid attention to the spokesman for the very same
Islamists when he announced that our enemy is France, which works with the
army of Mali, of Niger, of Senegal, of Guinea, of Togo, against Muslims
all these countries are our enemies and we are going to treat them like
enemies.
Which makes last weeks massacre in Bamako less incomprehensible. And for
those who believe that European soldiers who go clanking around African
countries are not going to provoke revenge from those of Malian origin, note
how we virtually ignored the background of the Isis killer of the French
policewoman and of four French Jews at the Paris supermarket last January.
Amedy Coulibaly was born in France to Malian Muslim parents.
And now lets read this report on Mali from early 2013: that French
warplanes are continuing their attacks on suspected rebel camps, command
posts, logistic bases and terrorist vehicles in northern Mali. In recent
days, officials said, they hit targets in the Timbuktu and Gao regions,
including a dozen strikes in a 24-hour period ... Replace Timbuktu and Gao
with Raqqa and Idlib and this is the same soup were being served up today
from Paris (and Moscow) about air assaults on Isis and into which PR Dave
himself now wishes to lead our miniature air force.
Our reaction? All rhetoric, of course, brought about by our ignorance, our
refusal to understand the injustices of the Middle East, our idleness in
addressing conflict with political plans and objectives. If we could apply
the whoa, boy advice today, it must be with an entirely new approach to
the cult mafia that exists in the Middle East. A world conference on the
region, perhaps, along the lines of the 1945 San Francisco conference where
statesmen created a United Nations that would (and did) prevent more world
wars. And for refugees, an offer like the Nansen refugee passport for the
millions of destitute and homeless after the 1914-18 war, accepted by 50
nations.
Instead we blather on about the apocalypse, terrorist world wars and Ancient
Rome. To our very own PR Dave, I can only repeat: whoa, boy!
© 2014 The Independent
/author/robert-fisk
