Anyhow, I am on page 540 in Fisk. The
Americans/French/British/Italians have just withdrew from Beirut after
American marines headquarters, French paratroop HQ have been bombed by
the suicide bombers. BTW, Am*rican foreign policy was just as
boneheaded then (Reagan as president, Bush Sr. as VP) as it is
now. There was the same rhetoric of combating "international
terrorism" (sic!), using big guns against guerrillas among civilian
population -- that time it was battleship New Jersey lobbing his FV
beetle-size shells on the Druze in Chouf mountains. There was the same
belief in technology. The same mixture of naivete, simplistic
solutions, and undercover political agenda.

Okay, I should say, Fisk (and this particular book of his) --
rules. This was one of the best books I have read in a while. On
multiple accounts. It is hard to compare books so I guess I'll use the
entertainment value as a metric.

As I mentioned to Sean before. Fisk as wartime/investigative
journalist is as close as the reader can get to the actual witness
accounts of historical events. Plus, in this book, Fisk does not
necessary focus on history but talks about his experiences, which
makes the book as authentic as it can get. Fisk is pretty calm about
his own feelings, which goes pretty well.  Fisk is a little rambly at
times: all of a sudden, in the middle of the book, there is about
50-some page-chapter on the tendentious use of the word "terrorist"
and other journalistic cliches.

Even though Fisk gets carried away harping about civilian casualties
especially at first, he does analyze quite well, however, the multiple
warring factions in Lebanon (at one time he says there were 33
different armies and militias there) and their precarious
relationships, their economic and historical reasons for existence,
etc. Besides, as the the story unfolds and the body piles mount, Fisk
becomes more cynical.  He did overlook the emergence of Hezbollah
somewhat. In his account the gunmen with green headbands bent on
suicide bombing sort of spring up.

Fisk himself comes across as a sympathetic character: a man of
integrity, courage, honesty and even modesty.

Some of his narrative devices sounded pretentious at first: as his
description of every army being greeted with rice and rose water and
their eventual unglamorous departure. But as this happens to more and
more armies in a span of a few decades, you sort of get into it.

Anyhow, the Israelites have retreated from Beirut yet are arming the
Phalange and local goons in the South Lebanon as their proxy army. The
kidnapping of westerners should start any time now. Gotta go read.