WAR IS A RACKET by Major General Smedley Darlington Butler

[no_hypocrisy]

War Is A Racket (1933)

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 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?

-more-

https://dn721507.ca.archive.org/0/items/warisaracketelectronicresourcetheantiwarclassicbyam/War%20is%20a%20racket%20%5Belectronic%20resource%5D%20%20the%20antiwar%20classic%20by%20Am.pdf

Audio:

[Kid Berwyn]

1. "High class muscle man"

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and 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 benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might 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.”

― Smedley D. Butler, War Is a Racket

[UpInArms]

2. I had hopes

That General Milley might be another Smedley Butler

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Milley supports the Constitution.

“We don't take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator.” — Gen. Mark Milley

The general head no authority to arrest Trump. That was Bill Barr’s missed responsibility.

[PCB66]

4. I am a Boomer born in 1947

Last edited Tue Mar 3, 2026, 11:46 AM - Edit history (1)

My god the number of wars I have seen in my lifetime. One after another. Hell, I was even involved in one and my son in another and and my Dad in another and I am just nothing but a poor Cracker boy from Polk County Florida..

I expect to be around for a few more years. I will probably see more wars before I kick the bucket.

Hellva racket.