The Great War for Civilisation

The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East is a book published in 2005 by the English journalist

Fisk's book details his travels to many of the hotspots of the Middle East, such as Iraq and Iran during the Iran–Iraq War, and his numerous interviews with leaders and ordinary people. Fisk also provides much of the historical context to these conflicts.

In the book, Fisk criticizes what he perceives as the hypocritical and biased British and United States foreign policy in the Middle East, especially in regard to the Arab–Israeli conflict and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He contends that the leaders of both countries deliberately misled the world about their motivations for invading Iraq in 2003.^[1]

The name of the book comes from

Contents

1. "One of Our Brothers Had a Dream..." is about Fisk's first interview in 1996 with the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, in the mountains of Afghanistan. The title of the chapter is derived from bin Laden who explains that one of his fighters had a dream of Fisk, wearing a robe and with a beard, and who was approaching them on a horse, signifying that he was, according to bin Laden, a "true Muslim".^[3] Fisk understood this relating of the dream as an attempt by bin Laden to convert him to Islam.^[4]

2. They Shoot Russians is on the 1980

5–8. The Path to War and the subsequent chapters The Whirlwind War, War Against War and the Fast Train to Paradise and Drinking the Poisoned Chalice deal with

9. Sentenced to Suffer Death is Fisk's account of his father, Bill Fisk, during his service in the

10. The First Holocaust is devoted to the topic of the

15. Planet Damnation gives an eyewitness report of the Gulf War. Fisk was stationed in the desert with the Allied forces and makes references both to the retreat of Iraqi troops from Kuwait and their subsequent slaughter by air bombardment on the Highway of Death during the Gulf War air campaign.

16. Betrayal describes the repression of the

17. The Land of Graves. The pun in the chapter's title points at the repercussions that the

18. The Plague deals with the unusual illnesses which plagued the Iraqi public after the war.

19. Now Thrive the Armourers... is an incursion into the world of the manufacturers of "all nationalities, all faiths, all follies, all causes and all crimes,"^[5] of the arms trade.

20. Even to Kings, He Comes... is an analysis of the deeds of King Hussein of Jordan and President Hafez al-Assad of Syria. The first, a controversial ruler, whose subjects were both acclaiming him and shrieking at his coffin during his burial ceremony, is put alongside "The Lion of Damascus", whose Hama massacre is looked into.

21. Why ? tries to find an explanation for the September 11, 2001, attacks.

22. The Die Is Cast examines the diplomatic and mass media moves which led to

23. Atomic Dog, Annihilator, Arsonist, Anthrax, Anguish and Agamemnon describes in great detail the turbulences which have accompanied the

24. Into the Wilderness is the last chapter of the book. It gives an idea of the challenges the

The book ends, as it has begun, in the "tiny village of

The work has a Chronology of the Middle East, starting with the birth of the Prophet