War Is A Racket
War Is A Racket
It has always been so
by Shorty Dawkins
Associate Editor
Major General Smedley Butler, a highly decorated US Marine, (received 2 Congressional Medals of Honor),, gave a speech and created a pamphlet called “War Is A Racket”. In it, he asks, who benefits from war? Certainly not the soldiers who die, or are disabled, or live the rest of their lives remembering the pain of losing their comrades. Nor is it the Mothers, Fathers, wives, sisters, brothers or children of the soldiers, many of whom lose their loved ones, or find them coming home as mere shells of the young men they knew. The Nation they bravely fight for finds itself deep in debt, and bereft of its best young men. Who does benefit? Smedley Butler tells us. It is the arms merchants who make great profits while the Nation, and its people, sacrifice. It is any businessman who sells goods, be they blankets, uniforms, canteens or spare parts for vehicles at enormous profits. He itemizes some of the worst examples from WWI. Supplying the military, particularly in wartime, is a racket. It has always been so.
Today, we find ourselves in war. In Afghanistan troops are sacrificing daily. We still have troops in Iraq. Troops are in Somalia, Kuwait, Mali, Libya and other places of conflict. We are in a state of perpetual war. War for peace. It is Orwellian. Meanwhile the arms merchants, the suppliers of fuel, food, clothing,, etc. to our military, are making tidy profits. It is to be expected.
I was reminded of Smedley Butler’s pamphlet when I came across an article titled, 10 companies profiting the most from war. The ten companies listed are British and American. The one thing that surprised me about the list is that Halliburton wasn’t on it. Or are they now a subsidiary of one of those listed companies? I’ll look into it at another time.
The point is, all wars are rackets. They always have been. They benefit the few while the common man, the soldiers, their families, their loved ones, suffer. The best a soldier can hope to do in a war is make it back home in one piece with his emotions intact. The merchants of death, however, stay at home and make big profits. As Bob Dylan said, When will they ever learn.
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Note: Here is our article on General Butler from back in 2011. Included is the entire text of the book “War Is A Racket”.
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/09/28/general-smedley-butler-war-is-a-racket/
The book is available at Amzaon dot com in paperback. Click <here> to buy.
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March 11th, 2013 at 5:25 pm
this is probably the elitist’s worse nightmare,a population capable of critical thinking.We have been so”BULLSHITTED.”Now people are waking up and that scares the hell out of ‘em.If war were so glorious and noble,why don’t they go fight the wars they start.They should quit meddling in other people’s business and do the job they were hired to do,protect our borders and defend the constitution.We so need our constitutional republic restored and quit bullshitting about democracy.Now that’s worth fighting for!
March 11th, 2013 at 7:13 pm
1865. The last cause worth dying for – the right of the several States to assert their sovereignty and resist the consolidation of power in Washington – had already been decisively won. Not by the States or the people, but by Washington, and its endless parade of bureaucrats. Now here we are nearly 150 years later, a so-called “democratic republic” that functions as an empire. And a failing one at that.
Soldiers almost never join or fight for Washington’s various causes, because Washington’s only actual cause is to increase its own power. Kids aren’t as gullible as they used to be, and there’s no current Hitler or Krushchev to draw them together in common purpose like their fathers and grandfathers. They join to follow the ancient urge count coup, or because they were promised a paycheck with a bonus, and they stay in because there’s barely any work for them on the outside.
I was no exception, I joined more or less to prove something, and stayed because I now have a family to feed. But not for one second can they lull me into that red white & blue group think that our poor society substitutes for patriotism. Not any more, even on the 4th of July. Sorry if that makes me un-American, but if believing in the central Government is what makes me American, then they can keep that title, and the stars & stripes, and the nasty federal carrion bird, and all the ridiculous Yankee trimmings & sentiments that come with it. Just keep it all.
March 12th, 2013 at 7:09 am
I just got word from my nephew, he is a NCO in the green beret. I asked him if he would fire on American citizens and he said, H^&* NO!!! He and most of his other GB are as POed as we are about what is going on with our country. GOT TO LOVE OUR CURRENT MILITARY THAT WILL NOT STAND FOR THE BS IN DC.
March 12th, 2013 at 8:06 am
This, THIS was all done in OUR name, our people – “We the People” are blamed for their treasonous acts.
WATCH and LEARN: A few of the US Goverments proudest Achievments through the years!!
http://12160.info/group/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/forum/topic/show?id=2649739%3ATopic%3A1148536&xg_source=msg
So much for Keeping the oaths to “Support and Defend the US Constitution”. No one, and I have been trying for years, will arrest and prosecute those traitors to the USA. Why? Because we have allowed them to not only hold the highest offices and in full view commit those acts, we also allow them to stay, not be prosecuted, or evn pay ANY price for their treason, murders, MASS MURDERS, even of our own soldiers: brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers, friends, brothers-in-battle who would still be alive but for their (”our” leaders) treason.
Guess it is now time for me to get a law degree so that I can go after them as NO ONE ELSE WILL. No oath but the one I took here, but THIS is MY country, OUR reputation in this world and in our OWN eyes. Yes, I have notified everyone. Everyone who has been notified and in a position to do something legally are guilty of: 18 USC § 2382 – Misprision of treason: Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.
March 12th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Sounds to me like pacifist crap. You want to know who else benefits from some wars: Everyone who stayed home. Given that businesses that didn’t sell anything related to a war effort both made money and employed people in the economy and that they might not have been able to do either if Veterans hadn’t paid the price for their freedom.
March 12th, 2013 at 6:24 pm
@ Bill Baker, comment #5:
Just to be sure I’m not mis-interpreting your intent here, what has “crap” got to do with peace? Is there something wrong with seeking peace? Isn’t there something wrong with deliberately starting wars to pump the Wall Street bubble? (Military-Industrial complex which Eisenhower warned about)
Do you know the history of General Smedley D. Butler? I will add a link to Shorty’s article above that will give you a bit of history about one of the U.S. Marine Corps’ two most highly decorated and highly honored Generals in all time. General Butler is said to be the most decorated General in U.S. history. Do check the article again, where at the bottom of the article I’ve placed a link to our definitive article on Butler and his book, War Is A Racket. It would be very wrong to call General Butler a man who espoused “peace crap”.
However, those who would seek perpetual war for perpetual peace are, I would submit, the true peddlers of “crap”.
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Salute!
Elias Alias, editor
March 13th, 2013 at 12:29 pm
If decrying fake, trumped up wars that benefit only the bankers and the Military/industrial/complex is “peace crap”, I plead guilty. I stand for the Creator Given Rights we are born with, and for the Constitution. I will defend them with my life, if need be.
March 14th, 2013 at 1:32 pm
As Catherine Austin Fitts so correctly diagnosed it ; “Banker warfare economic model”
the purpose of our 800 military bases in 130 countries: “Just think of them as brokerage sales offices and the military personnel as bond salesmen for U.S Treasury ponzi debt.” Indeed, our U.S. Treasury Bond Market, which is our economic health, has been held up by our Military/Industrial Complex. A ”Banker Warfare Economic Model”.
The Constitution requires a Congressional declaration of war. Each time the Constitution is breeched America drinks a little more poison and willingly kills freedom and liberty and all the prosperity that freedom and liberty provides .