ABSTRACT
Soon after the September 11 attacks, Robert Fisk, a long-time observer of the Middle East, wrote a column about "The wickedness and awesome cruelty of a crushed and humiliated people". He contended that "this is not the war of democracy versus terror that the world will be asked to believe in the coming days. It is also about American missiles smashing into Palestinian homes and US helicopters firing missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in 1996 and American shells crashing into a village called Qana and about a Lebanese militia—paid and uniformed by America's Israeli ally— hacking and raping and murdering their way through refugee camps".
