Fisk on what Obama should say about the Middle East (but won’t)

Spot on: OK, so here’s what President Barack Obama should say today about the Middle East. We will leave Afghanistan tomorrow. We will leave Iraq tomorrow. We will stop giving unconditional, craven support to Israel. Americans will force the Israelis – and the European Union – to end their siege of Gaza. We will withhold…

The risk of implosion of the Syrian state

Robert Fisk paints a troubling picture of a nation that needs fundamental reform: According to historian Farouk Mardam-Bey, for example, Syria is “a tribal regime, which by being a kind of mafia clan and by exercising the cult of personality, can be compared to the Libyan regime”, which can never reform itself because reform will…

Libya isn’t a Western plaything

While parts of Libya begin to imagine a life without Gaddafi – wonderful quote in this typically incisive Anthony Shadid piece in the New York Times: “There is no call for the overthrow of the government; only Colonel Qaddafi is mentioned, as lackey, tyrant and the man with really bad hair” – Western powers are…

Hypocrisy trumps policy in Western alliance with Libya

My following article appears today on ABC’s The Drum: The latest BBC interview with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, situated in a fancy restaurant on the Mediterranean, was painful to watch. Clearly delusional and blaming drug-addled youth and al-Qaeda for the ongoing revolution in his country (which he claimed he didn’t lead, the “masses” were in…

Who do Egyptians trust to bring them democracy?

Not the West, says Robert Fisk. The Palestinians would certainly agree: AMY GOODMAN: Well, what about the U.S. relationship with the military? I was talking to someone in a government agency in Washington, and they were deeply concerned, saying, “How do we counter the image that we’ve actually been supporting this despot for 30 years?”…

No wonder Egyptians don’t trust the West, why should they?

Robert Fisk on the infantile comments of our leaders towards the Egyptian streets. Perhaps it’s time to throw out our democratically-elected men with some serious people. They couldn’t be much more obsequious: Only when the power of youth and technology forced this docile Egyptian population to grow up and stage its inevitable revolt did it…