Noam Chomsky On The Morality Of Intentions

On May 1st, 2015 Sam Harris uploaded a blog post consisting of a debate between himself and Noam Chomsky on the topic of the morality of intentions. The crux of the debate is whether professed intentions, Chomsky’s argument, or actual intentions, Harris’ argument, is the true determinant of the morality of intentions in war. This essay will begin by criticizing Harris’ claim that al-Qaeda’s intentions in war are intrinsically worse than it’s American counterparts. It explains that the two groups have different moralities, but Harris provides a gross mischaracterization of al-Qaeda as indiscriminate killers. Additionally, Harris’ depiction of al-Qaeda as intentional killers lacks necessary critical depth. Secondly, it will show that Chomsky

Moreover, it shows that Chomsky successfully uses the al-Shifa case study to prove the importance of actual intentions when analyzing morality in war. Lastly, it illustrates that Chomsky makes a stronger argument for actual intentions being the true signifier of morality of intentions than Harris. In conclusion, this essay will defend that Chomsky was the clear winner of the debate against Harris regarding the morality of intentions because Harris made misinformed characterizations of the intentions of al-Qaeda while Harris academically proved his assertions of American intentions in the al-Shifa case study. Moreover, Harris provided a weak, non-academic argument for the importance of professed intentions while Chomsky argued against Harris’ position with clear historical

Firstly, he is correct in his claim that acts of al-Qaeda and American militants have alternate understandings of morality (Harris, 2015). However, Harris mischaracterizes the al-Qaeda threat entirely. He admits that the U.S. has made errors in combat, but he claims that acts of al-Qaeda are on a different “moral universe” because they kill indiscriminately. Harris ignores that al-Qaeda discourse was purposely reconstructed from acts of war to crime to delegitimize its cause (Hulsse and Spencer, 2008). The shift from viewing terrorism as an act of crime to war allows for the transition of military intervention to achieve a hegemonic victory (Lutz and Lutz, 2010). Meaning, critical analysis of American - al-Qaeda relations shows that the power relations between the two opposing groups are more complex that Harris designed them to be. Ahmed (2016) and Makoni (2013) state that al-Qaeda was constructed, by the U.S., as a terrorist organization to serve the interests of political and security elites to launch the “war on terror”. It is thus inaccurate to presume that al-Qaeda’s greatest flaw is that it lacks American