Robert Fisk

 I miss Robert Fisk.  I moved from reading The Times to The Independent at least in part because of his journalism.  When I decided some years ago to quit The Independent in favour of The Guardian, a newspaper whose distribution problems in my part of the world always hindered my reading of it, I abandoned Fisk (and his equally enjoyable journalistic colleague Patrick Cockburn) with regret.  Now dipping into the online version of his writing I am reminded anew of his power and fluency as an astute observer of Middle Eastern affairs, in particular the current revolutionary demonstrations in Egypt.  Time and again his writing throws up an arresting phrase:  'The problem is the usual one: the lines of power and the lines of morality in Washington fail to intersect when US presidents have to deal with the Middle East. Moral leadership in America ceases to exist when the Arab and Israeli worlds have to be confronted.'  And in his final paragraph Fisk seems to me to be prescient, weighty and yet guarded in a way many commentators are not in these heady days of profound political change in the Arab world: 'The end may be clear.  The tragedy is not yet over.'  So good is he that I am sorely tempted to renew my subscription.  I hope The Independent pays him well.  He certainly deserves a bonus.