Laurie Calhoun's Blog, page 6

Is the Downing of a Drone a legitimate Casus Belli? (book excerpt)

Excerpt from Chapter 6: ¨The New Banality of Killing,¨ We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age (paperback edition, 2016), pp. 150–154. (Notes and references are available in this free audiobook supplement)   ¨During World War II, US soldiers did in fact kill some innocent French citizens while attempting to dislodge the occupying … Continue reading Is the Downing of a Drone a legitimate Casus Belli? (book excerpt) →

Why whistleblowers are essential to democratic societies (book excerpt).

Excerpt from Chapter 5: ¨Strike First, Suppress Questions Later,¨ We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age (paperback edition, 2016), pp. 124-128. (Notes and references are available in this free audiobook supplement)   Whistleblowers such as Private Bradley Edward Manning (whose name was legally changed to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning in 2013) … Continue reading Why whistleblowers are essential to democratic societies (book excerpt). →

The Meaning of Collateral Murder (book excerpt)

Excerpt from Chapter 8: ¨From Conscience to Oblivion,¨ We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age (paperback edition, 2016), pp. 181-185. (Notes and references are available in this free audiobook supplement) Given the military focus on lethality, taken up also by the CIA in the twenty-first century, it is not terribly … Continue reading The Meaning of Collateral Murder (book excerpt) →

Why was Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested and removed from the Ecuador embassy?

Watch Collateral Murder, a video published by Wikileaks and which documents US war crimes.  

Review in Insight Turkey of We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age

Click here for the full review by Furkan Halit Yolcu in Insight Turkey Winter 2019, Volume 21, no. 1.   Advertisements

Do the Math: How Self-Styled Drone Warrior US President Barack Obama Normalized War Crimes (Part 1)

Originally posted on We Kill Because We Can:
 It’s hard to know where to start in addressing the US government’s “Summary of Information Regarding U.S. Counterterrorism Strikes Outside Areas of Active Hostilities,” released on Friday, July 1, 2016, before the long holiday weekend, in the apparent hope that no one would read it. Some of…

We Kill Because We Can audiobook now available at Audiobooks.com

Good news for Amazon detractors. Listen to We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering in the Drone Age free with a trial membership to Audiobooks.com: https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/... Free audiobook supplement (with all notes and references) is available here. Advertisements

We Kill Because We Can Audiobook is now available

Listen to a 5-minute sample or download the entire book for free with a trial membership to Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B07N6MX1W3...

The Selective Service-Drone Assassination Connection

Originally posted on We Kill Because We Can:
Drone warriors have been redefining words from the very beginning, and they have sadly persuaded a fair portion of the populace to accept that the formerly taboo practice of assassination is now legal, provided only that it be labeled “targeted killing”. It’s supposed to be perfectly permissible…

The Army *really* wants YOU to become a government contract killer!

One might have thought, with the advent of remote-control killing and combatant-free warfare, that it would be the easiest thing in the world to lure new recruits into the military in the twenty-first century, especially given the rapidity with which entire professions continue to disappear. Where in the world can a young person find a … Continue reading The Army *really* wants YOU to become a government contract killer! →