A message in a bottle....

This is part of an excerpt from a speech given by Smedley Butler, 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 we'll 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 wouldn't 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."

The remainder of the excerpt is here:

http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm

Smedley Butler was the person that the enormously rich contacted to arrange a military takeover of the government after FDR was inaugurated. They were mistaken about his loyalties to big business, and he blew the whistle on them.

If there are questions remaining about the motives for the current ongoing hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, best to read what Smedley Butler thought about such wars.

Cheers.

This is a great post, and I thank you for putting it up. I tried to find a context for this... where the speech was delivered, and why, but came up with nothing more about this Marine. I certainly appreciate his forthrightness, and would like to know more about him.

BTW, how did you happen to come across this?

It's what we all know, but.. will probably bug the heck out of some of the rightwingers. :)

Thanks again!

Kanary

hear it talked about, but it almost happened.

Butler was the most popular military leader in America, which is why Wall St picked him. He was like Clark, but even bigger -- maybe, more like Eisenhower.

Had he not been such a patriot, he might have done it. They offered him something like 30,000 bucks up front.

It's weird that they picked someone who turned out to have such anti-imperialist attitudes. He really wasn't on board with the Wall St mission. He has some great quotes. (One of which is on the liner notes of a Billy Bragg EP.)

I hope people post more about this.

It' really connects 1932 to what's going on today. Prescott Bush's grandson is finishing the job that Prescott failed at because of FDR's greatness.

I think you have single-handedly changed my opinion of history with this post. :)

This is really good stuff, and I want to know more.

If you have any links, or care to wear your wrists out posting more, I'd be most appreciative.

Thanks much!

Kanary

It's a bit dense, but if you want to get into some history that will grab you by the guts, read "The War Against The Weak."

I just finished it last week, and I'm still having to reach up and grab my hair and flatten it down from where it was standing on end.

The book chronicles the Eugenics movement at the turn of the 19th Century and halfway into the 20th Century. It shows just what a blood-chillingly evil juggernaut can be created when good intentions and careless science are corrupted by political ideology.

Hitler didn't invent a damn' thing that good patriotic Americans hadn't been advocating for years. And it's utterly terrifying how close to the brink we came....

And how dangerous a brink we stand on today if we don't learn from the lessons of this particular history.

soberly,
Bright

I've written it down, and will see if this is something I can handle. I'm very sensitive, and some stuff drives me right up the wall, for no gain.

I do, however, think that it's waaay past time for more of this to be included in our history lessons in school, if we're ever to become a people who are able to think, rather than just march in lockstep for the corporations.

On the brink....

Thanks... I so much appreciate those of you who can somehow handle reading all this ugliness.... thanks...

Kanary

what it would be like if a Smedly Butler were around during 1963 to thwart Prescott Bush's son?

... from the FAS site, so I can't say where the speech was given. There's probably more info out there which I haven't found yet.

Post #3 gives more background for the substance of his remarks.

I came across it because I knew his name from earlier research on the military-industrial complex and from a few posts here last year sometime about his role in thwarting the attempted coup after FDR was inaugurated. The fatcats knew FDR would be the end of their heyday and they intended to put a stop to his doing so. They came to Smedley Butler with a request to use the military to overthrow FDR's government, and to keep military jurisdiction in place until an interim council could be arranged (owned by the fatcats, of course) to manage the affairs of government. They greatly misjudged Butler's views--as the speech excerpt shows, Butler was quite well fed up with fighting for banks and Wall Street.

I'm guessing this speech was given shortly after his retirement, and probably would have been given in late 1933.

Cheers.

was one of the people who plotted the anti-FDR coup on behalf of Wall St interests.

Prescott Bush was associated with Brown Bros. Harriman, the brokerage bank, until he and others in Brown and Harriman, started Union Bank, which was later caught up in charges of aiding the Nazis. Perhaps amateur historians have confused the two events.

That said, Prescott Bush likely would not have been despondent over the political demise of FDR. He'd aligned himself with the moneyed rich and probably kept their counsel. He may not have known about the coup plot, but it seems certain, given the company he kept and his future actions, that he would have approved of it.

It's been 70 years and much has been lost that might still be pertinent today.

Cheers.

http://www.anti-sheep.com/articles/smedley_butler.php

Apparently he also wrote a book entitled War is a Racket and there is another book about his life entitled The Plot to Take the White House .

Interesting stuff, I dug out an old link or two and now I'm googling.

... would be appreciated, especially on-line text of these two books.

Cheers.

Apparently wasn't elected. Shows the intelligence of the electorate. This man sounds like he could have been a *very* poiwerful political leader. Somehow, he wasn't afraid to speak his mind.

Died before I was born.

That page is a killer on the eyes, though. Gak. Will have to print it with regular background.

Thanks for the posting!

Kanary, rapidly becoming a Smedley fan...

Smedley-ite? :)

I think Dennis "gets it" like Smedley did, and far better than anyone else in this horserace. Judging from your avatar, you think so too. :thumbsup:

Just didn't want to bring in the Special "K", as there's been too much hassling here, sadly. Should be able to make such a simplre statement. sigh....

I can see a direct connection with Dept of Peace. Direct.

I wonder if Mothers For Peace have that quote? Haven't seen it anywhere else.

Kanary Kucitizen

It's a good start.

Cheers.

Now-you Mothers, particularly! The only way you can resist all this war hysteria and beating of tom-toms is by asserting the love you bear your boys. When you listen to some well worded, some well-delivered war speech, just remember it’s not but sound. No amount of sound can make up to you for the loss of your boy. After you’ve heard one of those speeches and your blood’s all hot and you want to bite somebody like Hitler — go upstairs to where your boy’s asleep... Look at him. Put your hand on that spot on the back of his neck. The place you used to love to kiss when he was a baby. Just rub it a little. You won’t wake him up, he knows it’s you. Just look at his strong, fine young body because only the best boys are chosen for war. Look at this splendid young creature who’s part of yourself, then close your eyes for a moment and I’ll tell you what can happen...

Somewhere-five thousand miles from home. Night. Darkness. Cold. A drizzling rain. The noise is terrific. All Hell has broken loose. A star shell burst in the air. Its unearthly flare lights up the muddy field. There’s a lot of tangled rusty barbed wires out there and a boy hanging over them — his stomach ripped out, and he’s feebly calling for help and water. His lips are white and drawn. He’s in agony.

There’s your boy. The same boy who’s lying in bed tonight. The same boy who trusts you... Are you going to run out on him? Are you going to let someone beat a drum or blow a bugle and make him chase after it? Thank God, this is a Democracy and by your voice and your vote you can save your boy.

— Retired Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, 1939

That man had a soul. What depth! I can only imagine what he must have felt, as an officer giving orders, to deal with the battlefield deaths.

Why oh why don't we get this stuff in history? Yes, I know why, but.... why? Can't we afford to grow up as a society?

Thanks to all... this is really uplifting..

Kanary

This last piece from Smedley is EXTREMELY moving. I've got to go history hunting myself.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS POST.

:hi: Good to see you here.... great stuff, eh? And, written by a man... who obviously understood women...

We badly need some Smedleys today!

Kanary, the one with the reeling head...

On edit, go out and find yourself a copy of Howard Zinn's _The People's History of the United States_. There's much you weren't taught in school....

Cheers.

Arrrrggghhhh, now I'm a history junkie....?

:toast:

Thanks....... you've really enriched me.

Kanary

That man's sentiments reflect my own in terms of when to go to war and why.
I'm gonna go look for his books.:9

did you find this passage to mothers? It doesn't seem to be in other links.

Got reference?

THANX!

Kanary

It's from this site http://www.grandmothersforpeace.org/newsletters/2003/02/ .

There is some really good stuff there but no more from Butler unless I missed something. I have no idea in what context he delivered this but it was so powerful I had to post it.

place near the Mall in DC

There should be more Peace Parks throughout the World.

Maybe make it a business, Peace R US

Xome, we find ice cream and Haupia cream pie.

Y'know, there is a great Martin Luther King monument in Denver. It has many panels, arranged in a large circle, with quotations from MLK on each panel. It would be sooo inspiring to have a peace monument like that, with inscriptions from Smedley arranged around a symbol of peace (maybe like Japan's... a crane?)

His words are so powerful, and yet they don't lend themselves to short, pithy soundbytes, so it is hard to find ways of memorializing them. However, something like this panel idea may work. Somehow, there has to be a way to provide these works for a large audience! Wouldn't it be wonderful to relax in an actual Peace Park, and meditate to these words?!

Pu'uhonua!

However, I just don't advocate ruining more of nature's works, like a large hill of rock, for such. Especially in Indian Country. We need to preserve what bit of Mother Nature is still with us.

Peace R Us, indeed!

maluhia

Kanary, charter member of Smedley's fan club

The only man to have received two,I think.A soldier's soldier as well as a man of honor.

...there have actually been 19 double recipients: fourteen of these men received two separate Medals for two separate actions; five received both the Navy and the Army Medals of Honor for the same action. All the double awards were made between 1861 and 1918. Legislation in 1918 forbad the awarding of more than one MoH to an individual.

The MoH was concieved in 1861. There was an Army MoH, and a Navy MoH. There were no other awards for gallantry at that time, so many of the MoH awarded before 1918 would have been for lesser medals after that date.

In 1918 the congress created a "pyramid" of gallantry awards; Distiquished Service cross, Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, etc. The MoH was reserved for the most heroic acts. Of the 3459 MoHs awarded, 2480 were awarded prior to 1918, only 51 posthumously. Since 1918 there have only been 970 MoH awarded, 549 posthumous. (57%)

The Medal of Honor was awarded to the Unknown Soldier, and to the Unknown Soldiers of our WWI & WWII Allies,(a total of 9)

I don't think that war could be more simply or more succinctly described. That is the most brilliant way in which I've ever heard the idea of war related to anyone.


Absolutely unbelievable. Yet, totally true.

The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation - it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted - to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Let the workers in these plants get the same wages - all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers -

yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders - everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!

Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

Why shouldn't they?

They aren't running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered. They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren't hungry. The soldiers are!

Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war. That will smash the war racket - that and nothing else.

:kick: