Noam Chomsky - Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror?
The hypocrisy of the U.S. government is powerfully scrutinized inDistorted Morality, a scathing thesis presented by renowned scholar Noam Chomsky. Speaking before an intimate audience at Harvard University on February 6, 2002, Chomsky sets fair and logical parameters to his thesis (namely, we areallhypocrites and, for the purposes of debate, the U.S. government shouldalwaysbe given benefit of the doubt) before outlining, with academic precision and citation ofrealhistory (as opposed to biasedwrittenhistory), the reasons why America's post-9/11 war on terror is a logical impossibility.This, according to Chomsky's carefully supported analysis, is because the U.S. government has been, and continues to be, a major supporter of state-supported terrorism, favoring retaliatory or preemptive aggression over mediation in the world court, and avoiding accountability by excluding itself from the globally accepted definition of terrorism. (To underscore his point, Chomsky repeatedly volunteers his sources, inviting scrutiny at every turn.) With an additional hour-long Q&A; session (in some ways more compelling, since it offers Chomsky's response to opposing viewpoints),Distorted Moralitydeserves the widest possible audience. In the short period between Chomsky's Harvard speech and the start of America's war against Iraq in March 2003, Chomsky's thesis has attained the chilling status of prophesy. Inevitably, Chomsky will be labeled anti-American, but at leasthismorality is crystal clear, immune to the obfuscation of politics and mainstream news.--Jeff Shannon