Gogol 2007-07-22

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Probably the best book written by Robert Fisk who currently writes for the independent newspaper (with articles of considerably less quality than this book) This is more of a personal account of the Lebanese civil war as Fisk was a journalist who not only knew many of the journalists who were kidnapped at the time but also even had a lucky escape himself.

The book covers all sides of the dividing lines in Lebanon even pointing out some of the wider issues that effected Lebanon (such as the PLOs war with Israel and the Israeli invasion, the IRA and provisional volunteers who came to fight along side left wing factions in the civil war)

This is a very interesting read but sometimes I feel that Fisk himself ignores the fact that he is a journalist and becomes too personally involved and sometimes what he writes becomes little more than emotionally charged rants against those he does not agree with rather than objective insight.

Never mind, this is still a very good book and well worth reading.

Mr Bassil A MARDELLI 2007-04-05

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Pity the Nation is a good book to read.
It is descriptive of what happened in Lebanon throughout the wars of others on the land of the Cedars.
Yes, the wars of others.
In my library I have placed this valuable book under the caption `Biography' because I feel Bob Fisk has endured personal hardships at times and very sad events endangered by the intermittent fighting of the rival factions, like Palestinians fighting Palestinians one group was Pro-Syria, the other Pro-Iraq. Syrian Islamite fighting the Syrian secular Baathist regime of Hafiz al Assad. Amal Shia fought Pro-Iraq militias, and many groups changed alliances depending on the heated `Cold Wars' between the USA and USSR. Etcetera.
What Lebanon got to do with that!!!!

Indeed the term "Lebanon at War" is not absolutely applicable in this case, because in the annals of Lebanon's history, this country has NEVER attacked or assaulted its neighbors.
Lebanon has NEVER assaulted any country.
On the contrary, the Lebanese arena has often been `used' by others to temporarily solve their own problems or record winning scores.

Even amidst French rivalries in 1981 that accentuated in local polemics between the Socialists, the De Gaullists and the then weak Extreme Right, the French Ambassador to Lebanon, Louis Delamare, was shot and killed by assassins as he drove to his home in the so called West Beirut (predominantly Muslims). Three gunmen stopped his car a few yards from his residence, and, in what camouflaged to look like an attempted kidnapping, tried to enter the car. Failing to open the door, they shot the ambassador several times through the windshield, then fled in their car driven by a fourth man. Delamare's driver was unharmed and carried the ambassador to the hospital. A few hours later he was pronounced dead from the multiple head and chest wounds. At first, with no one claiming responsibility for the incident, there was speculation that pro-Iranian elements were involved because of the political asylum being granted in France to Iran's former president, Bani- Sadr. Other Arab sources, however, claimed that Syria was responsible for the assassination, possibly through the radical Palestinian group Assifa, led by Abu Nidal. It is said that Syrian President Assad's well-known displeasure with Arafat's recent independent diplomacy has lent his support of the radical group. Delamare's only crime may have been his escort only days before of French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson to a meeting with Arafat in Beirut.
What Lebanon got to do with that!!!

Even the IDF (Israeli Defensive Force) attempted to break everyone. They played local villagers against their neighbours when it became apparent that each was of a different ideology. They armed, clothed, bribed small groups of youngsters of each faith to work for them, and, indeed, do the ugly side of their games.

But at the end of the day, Lebanese never lost their identity.
The Lebanese are peaceful people.
In a Lebanese mind, trade relations take precedence over all others (notably politics)

During the lull days in the fighting I have been rolling from Reifoun (Summer resort in Kesserwan - the heart of the Christians) to West Beirut on a daily basis and saw with my own eyes the large numbers of `militias' at Gallery Semaan, taking shades under the massive trees. Those guys were not Lebanese, no; they must have been Pakistanis, Indians, and Bangladeshis (mercenaries). Who sent them to Lebanon? Who armed them? Who financed them? - After all they do come from relatively poor countries - They did not speak Arabic, and I bet they could not have known whom their `enemy' was!!!

Why in the mid seventies until 1992 the superpowers let alone a small and powerless country like Lebanon to be the `hub' for training `terrorism' fed by rusty ideologies?
Didn't they know that `terrorism' couldn't be localised?

Olivier Clementin 2006-07-12

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

This book an account of the author's experience as a reporter in Lebanon during the Civil War. It is essentially journalism, in the sense that it covers the day to day experience of the author. As the author says in the beginning, it is not a history (even though you can follow historical events pretty closely through Fisk's eyes), it is more an account of the daily life of ordinary citizens. For example, there are no statistics, not much on politics and no economic consideration. I personally suspect that studying the economics could help understand the conflict. The good thing is that Fisk has been to a lot of places. He keeps running around the Muslim parts of Lebanon and speaking with everyone: Israelis, Syrians, Palestinians, Muslims, Christians, Druzes, Americans, French, Italians.... He always seems to be near to where the bombs fall, which makes it possible for the reader to learn about the many different ways of being discombobulated or burnt alive (phosphorus or normal burns ?). That can be a little depressing. There are some very interesting comments on the role of journalism and the importance of words, in particular the issue of whether to call someone a terrorist or a freedom fighter, as there is no official definition of terrorism. I also liked the almost poetic way of describing how all foreign armies lose their way in the mystery that is Lebanon.

Be aware that the author is often considered to be strongly biased against Israel and against the Lebanese Christians. To me, it is not clear-cut, but it's the reason why I cannot give it 5 stars. The impression I have is that the author does his best to try and remain objective despite his relatively obvious feelings. The book is factual and probably sincere, but facts as seen by one individual give a necessarily incomplete, and possibly misleading, view of the events. Besides, the religious questions (Muslims vs Christians vs Jews) is intertwined with political issues, which complicates the matter: for example Robert Fisk keeps implying that the Christian Phalange party are nothing but modern-day Fascists. Some comments are clearly unfair or inappropriate: for example when leaving the home of a Christian, he notes that "two Christian children where plucking out the wings of a living bird". What about an interview with Hitler ending with "leaving Chancellor Hitler, I noticed two Austrian children gouging out the eyes of a living cat" ? If you disagree with someone, there are more honest ways to make your point than suggesting that he belongs to an essentially evil people - even if the incident is factually true. It is still a worthwhile read, if only because in the West we tend to get only the pro-Israeli view of the events.

I. Labrakou 2005-05-30

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

An amazing book. The tragedy of Lebanon as experienced by a British Middle East correspondent, constantly striving to be in the right place at the right time, and managing, against all odds and amidst the chaos to maintain his identity, his integrity, his professionalism, his humanity and most importantly his sanity.

The narrative was so powerful and overwhelming, there were times when I felt I just couldn't go on reading anymore. Fisk's aptitude in describing scenes of carnage, death and devastation turned the black and white text into a bloody, savage and cruel reality unfolding right there in front of my eyes. I felt sick to my stomach, I needed to take a break: watch TV, make a phone call, go for a walk; do things that defined my reality in an effort to block out another harsher reality, one so ostensibly alien and distant to me on the social level, yet so terrifyingly close to me on the human level, this latter together with Fisk's compelling writing being the reasons why I always came back.

A book of epic proportions (literally, since it's 700 pages long), striking detail, inexorable veracity, devout adherence to fact and utter respect towards the Lebanese and everything they went through.

geoyounes 2004-08-02

15 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

Pity the Nation would have ended up being a reference book for the Lebanese civil war if only it had been written by an impartial journalist. Robert Fisk is anything but.

Mr. Fisk could have used the advantage - if living in war-torn Beirut could be considered as one - of being an eyewitness and an outsider to one of the more brutal civil wars of the latter part of the 20th century to write a fairly unbiased account of the events. He chose to disregard objectivity and opted for biasness, his own political beliefs overshadowing the events that he was covering and masquerading as impassioned pleas for tolerance and forgiveness.

Instead of attempting to cover as many sides of the story as possible (and there are several: Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Israeli, American, French, Italian, Christian, Muslim, Druze, Jewish, etc.), instead of trying to stay as detached as possible (an admittedly difficult task in a stressful war environment), Mr. Fisk identified too closely with his environment, "went native" and covered the story from one narrow angle: the prevailing politics of his home base of West Beirut.

Sure, Mr. Fisk took great pains to indicate that he used to roam around Lebanon to get close(r) to the story. His forays outside of West Beirut remain more akin to a tourist's view than an in-depth account of the events that he was witnessing. Just like the journalists in his book who reported on the war without leaving the relative safety of the Commodore Hotel in Beirut, Mr. Fisk's reporting rarely ventures outside of familiar territory. Herein lays the main weakness of the book.

The book - minus the author's overly developed politics and personal beliefs - is still valuable as an eyewitness account of some of the major events of the Lebanese civil war. It is a must read for those readers who can differentiate between dogma and history and who are not swept away by the author's impressive credentials