Ted Honderich on Terrorism

Just caught the second half of a Channel 5 documentary The Real Friends of Terror, a work purportedly of moral philosophy by a philosophy professor, Ted Honderich, a name I vaguely remember from college days. I say purportedly, because I think its real purposes was to see how many times you can say the phrase "neo-Zionism" in a 45 minute show. A quick look at the guest list will give you some idea:

Rt. Hon.Tony Benn, minister in several Labour governments
Lord Ian Gilmour, minister in several Conservative governments
Mr Reg Kees, father of a British soldier killed in Iraq
Baroness Helena Kennedy, barrister and human rights advocate
Dr. Ghada Karmi, academic and consultant to the Palestinian Authority
Dr. Brian Klug, Senior Research Fellow & philosophy tutor
Prof. Steven Rose, Department of Biology, Open University
Baroness Jenny Tonge, past member of the Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet.

I saw half the programme and I reckon the least demented among the interviewees I saw was probably Tony Benn. The show actually went way past outrageous and into downright ridiculous. An example of the philosophical rigour (I paraphrase, but not by much):

Benn: I equate stealth bombers with suicide bombers, they both kill innocent people
Interviewer: What about intention to kill innocents?
Benn: Doesn't matter, it's only the fact of killing that matters.

That someone who pretends to be a moral philosopher could just let that statement go unchallenged... unspeakable. Other gems were Jenny Tonge saying that what Bush/Blair should have done on 9/11 was "sort out Palestine".

Apparently next week (so 26/09/06, presumably Ch5, 19:15) David Aaronovitch is giving the other side, so should be worth watching. But this one was something special. I have the last 20 mins on video if anyone wants.

For more on Honderich: he talked about The Principle of Humanity, and has written about his views here.