Last night I watched Distorted Morality which is a talk given by Noam Chomsky, given at Harvard University. I did not watch the question and answer session, but perhaps I will do so later.

The premise of the talk is that it is logically inconsistent to speak of a war on terrorism, when that “war” itself consists almost entirely of things which fit the US Government definition of the term terrorism. He talks at great length about the acts committed by the United States Government, in 1985 and in the months following September 11, 2001, which satisfy the US Government definition of terrorism, but were ostensibly done in order to combat terrorism. He also takes pains to accept the government’s definition of terms, so that these events would not instead be termed “aggression” by the UN definition, and thus be subject to the kind of trials held in Nuremburg.

This is fascinating stuff, and is accessible to pretty much anyone – by which I mean that he doesn’t use convoluted arguments or philosophies, but just presents the facts as any literate person can access them in the historical record, and applies the US Government’s own definitions to those facts.

*HIGHLY* recommended viewing. Only an hour. Well worth any time that you might otherwise spend watching CSI or Survivor.