War Is a Racket

[spooked911]

http://smedlydarlingtonbutler.blogspot.com/2006/05/war-is-racket.html

Smedley Darlington Butler

Major General - United States Marine Corps, died 1940

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 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?

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Please read the rest of this amazing article @ the link

[spooked911]

1. this essay is good too

"Remember"

by Roger Young

Ask ten people what Memorial Day is about and you'll probably receive ten different responses. Mentioned are claims of 'recognizing those who have served and fallen in defense or service to their country,' 'identifying patriots who unselfishly answered the call,' and 'acknowledging the heroes of battle.' A common theme encountered in the discussion is remembrance. But, what else should be remembered? Are there not other aspects of war that need remembering?

Remember the architects of perpetual conflict, the schemers and tacticians who design the strategy, chart the acts of aggression, and lay the blueprints for other's destruction.

Remember the plague of nationhood that infects the innate free spirit of men, disrupts the natural order of peaceful exchange and fuels the slavish obedience to political orders; regardless their legality or morality.

Remember the irresponsible who jump at the opportunity for conflict, forgetting reason, composure, and diplomacy. Remember how they delegate to others the duty to lead the engagement.

Remember the propaganda meisters who flood the airwaves with poisonous lies to reassure a wary, skeptical public; all carefully calculated to stultify the truth of war's consequences.

Remember the Masters of War who profit from this heinous spectacle- those who gain power and tarnished wealth. Watch them flaunt their booty paid for with the bloody currency of children not their own.

Remember those who consider it essential that defense of a state's borders requires committing pre-emptive acts of aggression against people on the other side of the globe.

Remember the cheerleaders who urge on 'their' warriors with shouts of jingoistic fervor; yet refuse or find it unnecessary to give up their comfort of state side security.

Remember those who have witnessed, first hand, the horror of battle and tasted the acrid flavor of war's experience.

Remember those who discover an epiphany, a life changing understanding that war is not the glorious adventure of Hollywood imagery, not the youthful pastime of an entertaining video game.

Remember those of this group who then fail to warn others of this newfound knowledge, who fail to convince compatriots of the needless sacrifice and stolen innocence.

Remember those on the sidelines who do not obey their conscience to speak out against the carnage, who hold their tongues through shyness or cowardice; who stand by silent as family, friends, and neighbors are whisked off to their inevitable doom.

Remember the children who witness war and its atrocities. Remember the confusion within young minds told killing is wrong, than struggle to comprehend the exception of war.

Remember their bewilderment when told to accept the killing of strangers that have done them no harm.

Remember the irreconcilable conflict within the hearts of Christians whose testament instruct 'love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.' and 'If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also (Luke 6:27-29)' Remember their befuddlement when finding serving their state (be it the U.S.A and/or Israel) requires disregarding these principles. Remember the ideological clash when told serving their 'country' preempts faithfulness to their God.

Remember the broken bodies and shattered psyches, still with us to remind us of war's human cost. Remember the lost potential, the dashed dreams, the oceans of shed tears, the newly discovered war against desperation and hopelessness.

Yes, remember the fallen, the dead. Visit their resting places with solemn respect. Make note of their obscenely abundant and escalating numbers.

Remember that each grave has a face, a story, a soul represented by that slab of coldly etched stone or weathered cross.

Then, remember the graves throughout the world without adornment of a marker- a name, an individual, sentenced to a burial of eternal anonymity. Don't the numbers now grow exponentially? Some were enemies, some were allies. Remember they also once walked the earth as those you honor. Remember they also aspired to a life of peaceful contentment, though driven by a different philosophy or creed as a means to obtain it.

Remember how, when living, all sides were compelled by opposing views of righteousness but now all are colleagues in death.

Do not only grieve for their loss but remember the lies and liars that killed them.

http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/young/young4.html

[azul]

6. Exploitation of innocence and patriotism and overpopulation,

its like there are two separate classes, the profiteers and those that actually do the dying.

Military industrial warrior complex.


""Don't you remember, Ma, when I went off to war,
You thought it was the best thing I could do?
When I was on that battleground, you were home an’ acting proud.
Be glad that you weren’t standing in my shoes.

And I thought when I was there, ‘God, what am I doing here?
Just tryin’ to kill somebody or DIE tryin'.’
But the thing that scared me most, when my enemy came up close,
I saw his frightened face looked just like mine.

Lord, just like mine!

Then I couldn't help but think, through that thunder and the stink,
I was only one more puppet in their play.
And through the roar and smoke, that string, it finally broke,
And a blast of fire blew my eyes away."

When the young man tried to walk, his mother was still in shock,
As she saw that metal brace that helped him stand.
But as they turned to go, he held his mother close,
And he dropped his medals down into her hand."
-Bob Dylan

[Hotler]

2. k&r n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

3. This essay keeps me from oversentimentalizing Memorial Day.

The lives taken on the battlefield or in their lonely room were unknowingly dedicated to politics, power, and money. Our freedoms were and are being threatened from within and indirectly, without. The military administration is just another arm of the government and the corporations like a private police force.

[snot]

4. "The Business Plot" revealed by Gen. Butler is important, related history. There's a great

BBC radio documentary about it, which last I checked was at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml .

In one of my favorite incidents, the doc mentions Butler's testimony that, when he was solicited by Gerald McGuire on behalf of a bunch of Wall Street businessmen to lead military vets and others in a coup against Roosevelt under the cover of a lie about the state of Roosevelt's health, and Butler questioned whether people would believe the lie, MacGuire replied, "You know the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President's health is failing. . . . And the dumb American people will fall for it in a second."

[spooked911]

8. yes, thanks for the reminder

he was an amazing guy

[Bigmack]

5. I never let a Butler quote go unaccompanied...

by a quote from the CMC during the first part of my time in....

`I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar soaked fingers out of the business of these (Third World) nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the `haves' refuse to share with the `have-nots' by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don’t want and above all don’t want crammed down their throats by Americans.' –
Gen. David Shoup, United States Marine Commandant Medal of Honor recipient.

Butler and Shoup.... 3 MOH and 10 Purple Heart between them.

The fucking rightwing chickenhawks do NOT own the military.

[Dystopian]

7. KandR

Thank you for posting.


peace~