The Great War for Civilization by Robert Fisk
Tonight Elizabeth and I attended the Kerr Saltsman Lecture series at the University of Waterloo. The speaker was Robert Fisk, foreign correspondent for the Independent of London, England. He is a great speaker – more of a story teller than anything. He has covered the middle east for 30 years. He has been in many many wars – Iran/Iraq, Belfast, Kosovo, Baghdad etc. He has seen the agony of war and violence. His experience has lead him to be a pacifist. At the same time, his writing has caused him to be labeled as a traitor.People from the audience took away different messages. Some took away that he was anti American and anti Bush. Some took that he was pro Muslim. Others took that he was just anti violent.
His latest book is “the Great War for Civilization”. He calls it depressing and undersells it as a 1000+ page depressing history of the current strife in the middle east which has no answers.
He is a historian who follows what has happened in the world for centuries. He spoke of lessons we can learn from history. I would like to study more history.
The only part I did not like is he appears to not embrace technology – rejecting both the internet and email.
I guess for someone who is not political (me), I manage to hear a lot of political speakers and read a lot of political books.
posted by Jim Estill @ 11:14 PM 
1 Comments:
Thanks for a balanced view of Robert Fisk's lecture. Your subscribers may be interested in the U-tube of Robert last year, announcing his retirement from active service as a war correspondent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDxezvEhHP0
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