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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMemorial Day and US Marine General Smedley Butler
Memorial Day commemorates soldiers killed in war. We are told that the war dead died for us and our freedom. US Marine General Smedley Butler challenged this view. He said that our soldiers died for the profits of the bankers, Wall Street, Standard Oil, and the United Fruit Company. Here is an excerpt from a speech that he gave in 1933
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then well fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldnt go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isnt a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its finger men to point out enemies, its muscle men to destroy enemies, its brain men to plan war preparations, and a Big Boss Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this countrys most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
Most American soldiers died fighting foes who posed no threat to the United States. Our soldiers died for secret agendas of which they knew nothing. Capitalists hid their self-interests behind the flag, and our boys died for the One Percents bottom line
His book, "War is a Racket," can be read in its entirety here.
https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Can never be posted enough.
Especially now.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)On The Same Frequency:
''There are only two things we should fight for.'' -- Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026725167
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)quit reading my mind damn it..............LOL
OTSF....................
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)General Butler saw thru it all and warned us, Just as President Eisenhower did in 1961:
erronis
(15,296 posts)but Ike was dissuaded from offending those congress critters in the audience.
Too bad because that's exactly what it is. A giant revolving door between the politicians, the top brass, and the companies that profit.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)given how big and pervasive the NSA and private intelligence agencies have become.
But the Congressional aspect of it is huge, and has helped maintain the war machine.
We as a country HAVE to get out of this war mindset.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)EXCLUSIVE: LEAKED REPORT PROFILES MILITARY, POLICE MEMBERS OF OUTLAW MOTORCYCLE GANGS
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/22/atf-report-warned-military-government-membership-outlaw-motorcycle-gangs/
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)A declassified secret US government document obtained by the conservative public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.
The document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, and that these supporting powers desired the emergence of a Salafist Principality in Syria to isolate the Syrian
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-west-saw-isis-as-strategic-asset-b99ad7a29092
Sheep dipped patsys
https://www.corbettreport.com/episode-305-the-secret-life-of-timothy-mcveigh/
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4e6_1384656611
Why would the military industrial complex want peace? That is the question to ask because any bureaucracy wants to grow and not put itself out of business..
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)polly7
(20,582 posts)If McCain had gotten his way, the west would have been the ones to fully arm them. McCain, Graham and several other republicans were pushing to arm ISIS through Saudi Arabia to help them overthrow Syria. Syria will be decimated just like Iraq, and Libya ... one way or the other.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)War is also terrorism, a lie, a crime and must be stopped.
We are bankrupting this nation in our endless wars.
johnnyreb
(915 posts)"No nation has ever benefited from a prolonged war." Sun Tzu
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." President James Madison
"There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell." General William Tecumseh Sherman
"War corrupts. Endless war corrupts absolutely." Overview to "Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War" by James Risen
"History, we won't know, we'll all be dead." gwb
Spoken word: War After War.mp3
marmar
(77,081 posts)Since goodness knows you'll only hear one perspective on U.S. militarism on news channels today.