AUDIO: Robert Fisk on the Occupation of Iraq

24:30 minutes
Most people in this region believe that the Americans are working for the Israelis. They believe that the American plans and the Israeli plans are the same. They note that Israel is the only Middle East nation which supports American policy in the region without exception -- which it is. They believe that Israel stands to be the soul beneficiary of US policy in Iraq...or in Iran or Syria or anywhere else.

I have to say that when I heard Mr. Bush announce that Syria has weapons of mass destruction, I came to look asconce towards London and say that isn't that what our dear Prime Minister Tony Blair told us about Iraq? And we haven't found any yet. But at the end of the day, we're back to the same old game.

Like a few minutes ago, I was watching Colin Powell (your secretary of state) announcing that it was up to the Palestinians to end violence. It was up to the Palestinians if they wanted a state...And you know, listening to him...if I came down from Mars or Planet Jupiter, I'd have the impression that the Palestinian T-54 tanks were occupying the streets of Tel Aviv when in fact it's the Israeli Merkava tanks [which] are occupying the streets of Ramallah and Gaza and Bethlehem. It is a total falsity which is being foisted on the Americans with the assistance of a most shameful press. I more and more come to think that The New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times are so gutless...I wouldn't want to include them in the realm of journalism. But the way in which they are promoting American policy in the Middle East, as favoring always the people with the most weapons, the most arms, and the most power, has reached a point where it has become, I would have thought, insufferable for journalists to continue to work for these newspapers. But over and over again, we are hearing "the Iraqis must sort out their country...the Palestinians must want peace...they must stop violence" -- again and again, the victim is the accused. And as long as that goes on, whether it be in Iraq or whether it be in Afghanistan, or whether it be in Israel/Palestine, there will be tragedy...And ultimately, and this I think is the point for Americans, it will be a tragedy for the United States because at the moment the whole Iraq adventure is collapsing in flames (sometimes literally when the oil aqueducts are being blown up and in blood, literally, when American soldiers are being killed). There is a neo-conservative cabal of fantasists running US policy in the Middle East and they're leading the United States into a dark and very dangerous adventure and a dark and very dangerous future in the Middle East.
-Robert Fisk