Night of Power Quotes

“Our wars in Iraq, in Bosnia and in Kosovo contained a sinister pattern, a ‘normalisation’ of war. If our outrageous assaults on our enemies were too much for the audience, we either apologised – accidents happen in war, do they not? – or we blamed the victims. If we bombed a bunker packed with civilians in Baghdad, it was only because Saddam had used identical bunkers for command and control operations. So when we bombed Afghanistan in 2001 and destroyed entire villages, it was because al-Qaeda or the Taliban had been hiding there or – if they hadn’t – their tactic of hiding in other villages was to blame. And in 2003, we created a pageant of identical ruthlessness against the Iraqis.”
― Robert Fisk, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East

“And if the Americans could bomb a hospital in Serbia or a civilian housing estate in Baghdad, who were the hypocritical West to object when the Israeli army slaughtered the innocents of Lebanon and Gaza in identical ways?

This, then, is another theme of this book; the ‘normalisation’ of this latest warfare, which deletes the protection of civilians enshrined in international law in favour of a new and cruel morality:”
― Robert Fisk, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East

“Our wars in Iraq, in Bosnia and in Kosovo contained a sinister pattern, a ‘normalisation’ of war.”
― Robert Fisk, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East

“By its very nature, journalism dilutes the truth not just through proprietorial or editorial bias, though that is important, but because shortage of space and the need to appeal to a wide audience necessitate oversimplification.”
― Robert Fisk, Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East