Laurie Calhoun

The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act: From Propaganda to Censorship to Tyranny

by Laurie Calhoun | May 18, 2022 | Featured Articles

Spectacle and theater have come to dominate the political arena today, even more so than ever before. Politicians are now celebrity oligarchs, who use tax revenues to promote their pet projects, and to enhance their personal investment portfolios, while pretending in scrupulously orchestrated performances to care about the populace from whom all of the money they squander is siphoned. Congresspersons who issue dire warnings about global warming jet across the world for photo ops with President Zelensky in Ukraine. The provision by the federal government of Peloton bicycle memberships to the...

Smart War Disinformation and the U.S. Military State

by Laurie Calhoun | May 4, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Drone killing has long been billed by the military as a cleaner, smarter way to conduct war. The standard marketing line has been that with drones it is possible to neutralize even elusive enemies such as factional terrorists while sparing the lives of innocent persons, and without sacrificing any soldiers at all. The most effective propagandist throughout the period when drone assassination was redefined as “targeted killing” and normalized as a standard operating procedure was John Brennan, who served as Barack Obama’s drone killing czar before being promoted to the position of CIA...

America’s Exceptional Amnesia (About Those War Criminals…)

by Laurie Calhoun | Apr 13, 2022 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

The top-ranking U.S. diplomat, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, recently denounced Russian president Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, which has resulted in a marked uptick in the usage of that term throughout the media. Putin decided to invade Ukraine in February 2022 and has killed people in the process. That’s what happens when leaders decide to address conflict through the application of military force: people die. The U.S. government has needless to say killed many people in its military interventions abroad, most recently in the Middle East and Africa. Yet Americans are often...

KPFA Saturday Evening News Segment: Extrajudicial Execution Using Lethal Drones

by Laurie Calhoun | Mar 28, 2022 | Blog, Foreign Policy, Justice

Laurie Calhoun answers David Rosenberg's questions about drone killing and whether President Biden is likely to curtail the practice. The drone discussion spans minutes 10:15 to 13:20 of the Saturday Evening program on March 26, 2022. (Recorded on March 25, 2022). Other segments of the news report cover the crises in Ukraine and Yemen. https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20220326-Sat1800.mp3

The Necro-Neologism of Lethal Legal Experts

by Laurie Calhoun | Mar 28, 2022 | Featured Articles

The power of language is magical to behold. Through the mere pronouncement of words, people can be persuaded to do what they would never have thought to do, left to their own devices. The playbook with the most success in this regard is that of war. When people are “informed” that they and their families are in mortal danger, they can and often will acquiesce to any and all policies which government authorities claim to be necessary in order to protect them. Young people can be coaxed into killing complete strangers who never did anything personally to them. Citizens can be brainwashed to...

U.S. Hypocrisy on War Crimes

by Laurie Calhoun | Mar 27, 2022 | Blog, Foreign Policy

U.S. hypocrisy on war crimes is discussed by Laurie Calhoun from minutes 12 to 16:30 of this report on WBAI News with Paul DeRienzo. https://soundcloud.com/user-879607737/032422-nato-war-drums-ukraine-at-month-one-food-shortages-amazon-protest-in-newark?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

More on War Crimes: The Sunday Show, KPFA Berkeley

by Laurie Calhoun | Mar 27, 2022 | Blog, Foreign Policy

Laurie Calhoun joins Philip Maldari on The Sunday Show on KPFA 94.1 in Berkeley to discuss the recent history of war crimes, including the 1999 Kosovo intervention, the 2003 War on Iraq, the 2011 Bombing of Libya, and the current military conflict in Ukraine. Also covered are drone assassination and the Global War on Terror, NATO, the distinction between the USSR and Russia, red lines, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm (the 1991 Gulf War), Afghanistan, and the spectre of nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia. The recorded discussion took place on March...

“War Criminals Past and Present,” on KPFA 94.1 Flashpoints, Pacifica Radio

by Laurie Calhoun | Mar 25, 2022 | Blog, Foreign Policy

Laurie Calhoun joins Dennis J. Bernstein on Flashpoints, a program of KPFA 94.1, Pacifica Radio, to discuss War Criminals Past and Present. The discussion begins about 34 minutes into the hour-long program, which was recorded on March 24, 2022. https://thedroneage.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/kfpa-94-1-flashpointspacifica-radio-war-criminals-past-and-present/