Decorated British foreign correspondent Robert Fisk has been based in the Middle East for the last twenty-five years, reporting from the world's worst trouble-spots. This is his first-person account of fifty years of bloodshed and tragedy in the area, from the Palestinian-Israeli carnage to the recent war against Iraq. Written with passion and anger, 'The Great War for Civilisation' is a reporter's eyewitness account of the Middle East's history. The most dangerous men of the past quarter century in the region - Osama bin Laden, Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Ariel Sharon - come alive in these pages. Fisk has met most of them, and even spent the night out at a guerrilla camp with bin Laden himself. In a narrative of blood and mass killing, Fisk tells the story of the growing hatred of the West by millions of Muslims. He outlines the West's cynical support for the Middle East's most ruthless dictators, and America's ever more powerful military presence in the world's most dangerous lands and its uncritical, unconditional support for Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. It is also a story of journalists at war, of the rage, humour and frustration of the correspondents who spend their lives reporting the first draft of history, their weaknesses and cowardice, their courage and truth-telling. After reading 'The Great War for Civilisation' the events of September 11th and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime take on a new and frightening meaning. Brought right up to the present day and reporting from the heart of a bombed-out Baghdad, Fisk examines the factors leading up to the coalition forces entering Iraq, and discusses possible outcomes of long-term involvement there. It is the story of the violent world that is shaping our lives - and our future.