August 13, 2006

• "War Is a Racket"

  'War Is a Racket'

  Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933 by General
  Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC. General Butler was the recipient of two Congressional
  Medals of Honor - one of only two Marines so honored.
  

  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. . . .

  
  
  

  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"
  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 country's 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. . . .
  

  
  

  You can find the above excerpt here:  http://www.twf.org/News/Y2001/0911-Racket.html .  Unfortunately you can't read the full text of General Butler's speech unless you buy the book from Amazon.com by clicking on the picture of the book.

  There is some other interesting stuff there on that site, too.  I personally subscribe to the e-mail mailing list of The Wisdom Fund, so that I can get another perspective on the world in which I live.
  

  EDIT:  Has anyone seen Mike Wallace's recent interview of the President of Iran?  I saw the "raw, uncut" version on C-Span last night.  If you've seen it, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about it.

  • 2:53 pm
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