Robert Fisk: For the Muslim World, It Will Make No Difference Who Wins the Election

Juan Gonzalez: The U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is back in the news. The British ambassador to Afghanistan has been quoted in a French newspaper as saying that the American military strategy in that country is "destined to fail." Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles's critical comments about the NATO operation in Afghanistan were part of a leaked memo from a French diplomat. He also said, "The coalition presence -- particularly the military presence -- is part of the problem, not the solution."

The British ambassador's leaked statements were published just as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan called for three additional combat brigades -- that is, over 10,000 soldiers -- to be immediately deployed to Kabul. General David McKiernan told reporters in Washington, D.C. Wednesday that Americans were facing a "tough fight" in Afghanistan that "might get worse before it gets better."

Amy Goodman: As the U.S.-led wars in the Middle East show no sign of abating, we turn now to a man who has chronicled eleven major wars in this part of the world and shows no sign of abating, himself. Robert Fisk is Britain's most celebrated foreign correspondent, has borne witness to countless tragedies in the Middle East for over three decades.

Robert Fisk has been named British Press Awards' International Journalist of the Year seven times. He is currently the Middle East correspondent for The Independent of London. His previous books include Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon and The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East. His latest is a collection of his essays and articles from The Independent; it's called The Age of the Warrior. Robert Fisk joins us here in New York in our firehouse studio.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

Robert Fisk: Thank you, Amy.

AG: Well, you're traveling through this country in the midst of a major crisis and a war abroad. Talk about your observations.

RF: Well, I suppose the first thing is how similar the two things are. I mean, first of all, the Europeans were constantly advising more banking regulation, in case they got infected by any economic crisis. The United States, this had to be a free market, deregulation totally. In other words, once more, the United States did not listen to its foreign partners and allies, on economic issues this time.

Number two is: rushed into a quick fix for a rescue bailout without any really serious planning, like crossing the Tigris River without a plan for post-war Iraq.

And three, it's the little people who get hit: the little Iraqis, in the hundreds of thousands, who've died; and, of course, poor Americans, for the most part, who join the Marines or the Reservists because they want to have a university education, they end up in Iraq, and they get killed. The little people, once more, are the people who are getting hit. They're very parallel things, in my view. I can see it all the time.

JG: And, of course, here, in this country, as the number of U.S. casualties has declined, so has the attention in the media or in the public to the situation in Iraq, and everyone has now bought into the thought that things are getting better.

RF: Ha ha ha, yes. Look, the degree of ethnic cleansing that actually took place -- genocidal, in some ways -- and the fact that the Americans have now built walls through every community in every major city in Iraq, which has divided between the communities, means that there isn't, in fact, any free flow of movement. There isn't a country operating anymore.

But now, I mean, if you stand back a little bit and look at it like this, first of all, we went to Afghanistan, we won the war. Then we rushed off to Iraq and won the war. Then we lost the war in Iraq, or maybe we won it again. And then we're going back to Afghanistan, where we seem to have lost the war, to win it all over again. And in due course, perhaps we'll have to go back to Iraq. I mean, in my reports, I'm calling this Iraqistan. And now, we've actually got soldiers on foot turning up in Pakistan. I mean, has nobody actually stood back and said, "What on earth are we doing out there?" I mean, I calculated for our Sunday magazine that we now have 22 times as many military personnel per head of population as the Crusaders had in the 12th century. You know, what are we doing?