Conversations with History: Robert Fisk

December 2006 interview: Robert Fisk (12 July 1946 – 30 October 2020)*

“I tell you, if you saw what I saw you'd never support a war again. But you won't show that on television. And by not showing that on television …”

unedited copy-paste from the transcript – on page 4 of 6:
I always say to people -- on the road, Basra in '91, I saw women, as well as soldiers and civilians, old men, torn apart by British bombs as well as American. And dogs were tearing them to pieces to eat, it was lunchtime in the desert. I tell you, if you saw what I saw you'd never support a war again. But you won't show that on television. And by not showing that on television we present the world with a bloodless sand pit. We pretend war is not that bad. It's "surgical," always "surgical strikes." Surgery's a place where you're cured in the hospital, not where you're murdered or killed or torn apart. Thus, we make it easier for our leaders -- our generals, our prime ministers, our presidents -- to sell us war, and for us to buy into war and go along with that. That makes us lethally culpable and potentially war criminals in a very moral sense of the word -- or immoral sense, I should say.*



*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer
views