Laurie Calhoon explains how leaders get their people to commit horrific crimes.

"Throughout the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the war makers themselves controlled much of the media, which dutifully parroted official government statements directed toward the citizens whose federal taxes were being used to fund the missions. As a result, many people remained largely unaware of what they were paying for, so much so that they opted to reelect President George W. Bush, even after it had emerged that there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The reigning assumption among the populace continued to be that the perpetrators of the crimes of September 11, 2001, were being brought to justice through the protracted Global War on Terror. In reality, the primary recipients of the government’s application of deadly force were nonviolent inhabitants of Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Syria."