I know I'm not the only one who tires of hearing/reading Robert Fisk going on about all that America doesn't know about the Middle East/Central Asia/Islam. I fully understand that the entire apparatus of the US government couldn't possibly know what Mr. Fisk knows. But, still I do enjoy the occasional anti-Fisk article when it appears in the Irish press. Nearly all of them are by Eoghan Harris in the Sunday Independent, who was at it again this weekend. [UPDATE—Aug 8: However, this one is actually by Eilish O'Hanlon, not Harris. Thank you to Steven for pointing this out to me.]
My only complaint with O'Hanlon's article is that Irish Independent is the Irish newspaper that seems to provide Mr. Fisk with the most space. On Saturday we were blessed with two helpings from the all-knowing one. The first article was about the "Growing Insurrection" in Iraq. Essentially, the Americans don't know what they're doing, but the British do. They're so lucky to have a buffer between them and those Yankee cowboys.
The second article begins with a discussion of Paul Bremer's clothes. This one is about how all American successes in Iraq are illusory. In fact, what looks like a success is always a disguised failure. You have to be really knowledgeable to pick up on those, which of course Fisk is. I like his quoting of an unnamed Iraqi journalist. I could be totally misinformed, but this is either a person (the Iraqi, not Fisk) who took up journalism in the past 4 months or someone who worked under the paternalistic care of Saddam H.
