Since he was born before the turn of the century, is named "Smedley", and
talks in terms of $millions not $TRILLIONS, you might be inclined, as I was,
to write off the words of General Smedley Butler as the rantings of a passe
old codger.
This would be completely wrong. My bias changed when I learned that he is
one of only four of the Marine Corps' multiple Medal Of Honor winners; (there
have been 19 in all services combined since its Civil War 1863 beginnings)..
Like Linus Pauling's Nobel Prizes in unrelated fields, Gen Smedley's Medals
of Honor are in two different "wars", and General Smedley deserved another.
As America's most recognized military hero, he was recruited by the powers that
be in 1934 (similar in goals to PNAC now, I suspect) to help overthrow our
government and promote a new World War; not only did he refuse, but at great
personal danger and financial loss to himself, he spilled the beans; he lived
only a handful more years.....see........
The Forgotten Coup | MetaFilter
In 1934, the Du Ponts and Morgans tried to hire former Marine Gen.
Smedley Butler to stage a fascist coup against the liberal Roosevelt
administration. ...
www.metafilter.com/mefi/34627 - 97k - Cached - Similar pages and
War Is the Health of the State by Randolph Bourne
(Interesting aside : Army's only Civil War multiple Medal of Honor awardee
was 19 yr old Lt.[later Col] Thomas Custer, historically overshadowed by his
"big" brother George with whom at the age of 30, he ran into a few Sioux.in
1875 (http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohstats.htm)
and(http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm)
Here's the first chapter of a five (5) chapter booklet all linked and
avaialble written by General Butler. You will note that his references to
$millions make better sense in perspective if you think along the lines of
$millions for WW!, are $Billions for WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, and $Trillions
today.
Jefferson warned us; Jackson and Abe warned us. Ike warned us; and, Smedley
warned us; my generation (boomers) has failed.
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
War Is A Racket By Major General Smedley
Butler
Contents Chapter 1: War Is A Racket
Chapter 2: Who Makes The Profits? Chapter 3: Who Pays The
Bills? Chapter 4: How To Smash This Racket!
Chapter 5: To Hell With War! Smedley Darlington Butler
Born: West Chester, Pa., July 30, 1881
Educated: Haverford School
Married: Ethel C. Peters, of Philadelphia, June 30, 1905
Awarded two congressional medals of honor:
capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914
capture of Ft. Riviere, Haiti, 1917
Distinguished service medal, 1919
Major General - United States Marine Corps
Retired Oct. 1, 1931
On leave of absence to act as
director of Dept. of Safety, Philadelphia, 1932
Lecturer -- 1930's
Republican Candidate for Senate, 1932
Died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, June 21, 1940
For more information about Major General Butler,
contact the United States Marine Corps.
CHAPTER ONE War Is A Racket
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most
vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which
the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems
to the majority of the 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
very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At
least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States
during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income
tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one
knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a
trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested
dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells
and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust
of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They
just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few --
the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public
shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled
bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability.
Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for
generations and generations.
For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a
racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I
see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it
and speak out.
Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side
by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and
Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique
occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor.
The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated
matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each
other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was
Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people -- not
those who fight and pay and die -- only those who foment wars and remain safely
at home to profit.
There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and
diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.
Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers?
Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained
for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce in
"International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, said:
"And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and
the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the
moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace.
. . . War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the
stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it."
Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army, his
great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war -- anxious for it,
apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute
with Jugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the
Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too. There are
others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later.
Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and
more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace. France only recently
increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen
months.
Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe are
on the loose. In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when
Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed
Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now
the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door"
policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year.
Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines
in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators)
have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.
Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these
private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be
all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war -- a war that might well cost us
tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and
many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced
men.
Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit -- fortunes
would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few.
Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers.
Speculators. They would fare well.
Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high
dividends.
But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their
mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit
their children?
What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge
profits?
Yes, and what does it profit the nation?
Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside the
mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a little more
than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot, or
shunted aside, the advice of the Father of our country. We forgot George
Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired
outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of
our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over
$25,000,000,000. Our total favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year
period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a purely bookkeeping basis, we
ran a little behind year for year, and that foreign trade might well have been
ours without the wars.
It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American
who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this
racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets, brings fancy profits,
but the cost of operations is always transferred to the people -- who do not
profit.
CHAPTER TWO Who Makes The Profits?
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