The Ultimate Racket

From a 1933 speech by Gen. Smedley D. Butler

War is just a racket. A racket is best described as something that is not what it seems to be to most 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.

There isn't 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,"  Capitalism.

It may seem odd for 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 country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps.  I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. 

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. 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."

1933-2010...We Still Don't Get It?

the USMC Brevet Medal. (the highest Marine medal at its time for officers), the Medal of Honor twice.

He is one of only three to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor, and the only person to

be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor for two different actions.

General Butler was noted for his outspoken anti-interventionist views, and his book War is a Racket.  His book was one of the first works describing the workings of the military-industrial complex and after retiring from service, he became a popular speaker at meetings organized by pacifists, veterans and church groups in the 1930s.

Smedley Darlington Butler "The Fighting Quaker" was a Major General in the US Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in US history.  During his 34 years of Marine Corps service, Butler was awarded numerous medals for heroism including

Out of Iraq?  Maybe Not

Excerpt from William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed 3/5/10

George W. Bush made it clear that the United States would be in Iraq until the Earth crashed into the sun, if he had his way.  The reasons for this are, by now, patently clear: Republicans tend to win elections when people are afraid, wrapped in flags to support our troops, or both.

Plus, George's buddies in the oil-and-defense industry have enjoyed galactic profits thanks to the ongoing conflict.  Plus, he could not, or would not, admit to having made a blood-drenched error in judgment by pursuing a costly house-to-house urban war that delivered Iraq into the hands of neighboring Iran, because he's just not built for admitting error.  Any such admission might conclude with him and his merry men getting invited to spend some time in a small room with bars on the doors and windows in the Hague.

With the election in Iraq there has been a detonation of violence.  President Obama inherited this nightmare from George and the boys, and campaigned heavily on getting the United States out of there by next year.   Make no mistake: this is, was, and will always be Mr. Bush's war, but the sudden spike in death and destruction on the eve of Sunday's elections - according to the Smart Boys in the Pentagon and NSC might wind up tossing Obama's removal plans into a cocked hat.

We should never have been there to begin with.  We should not be there now.  Let the word go forth from this time and place: we must be gone from there before another year passes.  No matter the circumstances, we must go.  Hundreds of Iraqi civilians have died since the New Year, as have ten American soldiers. 

It is enough.