In interview today with Tony Jones of the Australian Broadcasting,
Fisk discussed the ''hand over'' on June 30, the UN, Najaf and what he perceives as a certain nuanced (what else, the word for this year) disassociation between Bremer and then the US military, and Bush, in their words.
Israeli/Palestinian occupation and the American occupation of Iraq discussed as well...
ROBERT FISK: Well, the poor old UN.
You know, when we wanted to rush into war, we batted the UN donkey around the ear and told them it wasn't standing up enough and now we're trying to drag the old UN donkey to save us in Iraq because after all we realise it's all gone wrong.
I don't think that the UN is going to go into Iraq on June 30.
I cannot see the end, or the depth, to which the current bloodshed is going.
I can't see a way out at the moment.
Ultimately, I think it will have to be - if it's not just going to be an abandoned Iraq with Iraqis trying to run it, I think it would be - it has to be Arab force, an Arab league force.
We're going to have to see Syrians in there, Emirates, the Saudis, Egyptians, but even that will start to fracture and fragment across the Arab world in the Middle East.
I simply can't see a way out, when you build a war on illusions and fantasies and you don't get international mandate to run it, then your occupation will fail.
The British occupation in Iraq took three years to fail between 1917 and 1920.
It took us, the British, three years to unite the Shiites and the Sunnis behind us.
It's quite an achievement - the Americans have managed to unite the Shiites and the Sunnis against them in just one year. [snip]
Just as I finish up this entry, I hear a report on CNN from Jamie McIntyre with Aaron Brown. We are still pushing the line that this resistance, at the level and intensity currently on offer, is a sign of success (uh, ours!).
Well, score for ultimate nuance!
Neither Jamie nor Aaron, from their faces, could really believe it is still pushed.
Jamie McIntyre finished up saying, if this is success we can't take much more of this.