War is a racket
As the dust begins to settle on the latest round of George Bush vs. American Values, it's important to emphasize just how little support this man has for the torturous way he operates.While Senate Republicans now say that that they have reached some sort of Geneva Conventions-friendly "agreement" with the White House, the vehement backlash against Bush by the military this past week is well worth revisiting.
These five former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff actually had to publicly stand up against a sitting President of the United States! Yeah, it's really gotten that bad.
Gen. Hugh Shelton
Chairman under Bill Clinton & George W. Bush
Gen. John Shalikashvili
Chairman under Bill Clinton
Gen. Colin Powell
Chairman under George Bush Sr. & Bill Clinton
Admiral William Crowe
Chairman under Ronald Reagan & George Bush Sr.
Gen. John Vessey
Chairman under Ronald Reagan
These men were joined by dozens of other Generals, Admirals, intelligence officers and the entire JAG Corp. Plus, the FBI (who refuse to be present while these interrogations are taking place because they are too gruesome) and the CIA who recently said they would NOT continue these illegal interrogations.They all rose up to protect America from its own President. Surreal...
This historic standoff comes on the heals of the ongoing revolt of the Generals against Bush's disastrous oil war in Iraq. These are honorable military commanders who are following in the fine tradition of General Smedley Butler.In the first half of the 20th century, Gen. Butler was as well known as Colin Powell is today. He served 33 years in the US Marines and is one of only 19 people ever to receive TWO Congressional Medals of Honor - the highest decoration the US Military awards.Gen. Butler served with unquestionable distinction on battlefields spanning three continents.
And when his service was through and the only orders he followed were his own he did what all great men do: he asked himself "Why?"History now remembers General Smedley Butler for his answer that very simple question. An answer that holds as true today as it did 73 ago…
WAR IS A RACKET!
The following is an excerpt from a speech Gen. Butler delivered in 1933…one of over 1,200 speeches he delivered in over 700 US cities.
"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.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
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. 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."
In 1935, Gen. Butler published his famed short work titled War is a Racket. Click here to read it in its entirety.
posted by John Good @ 10:43 PM
26 Comments:
A great post John! I 1st read Smedley a couple of years ago. If only his writings were required reading for all Highschoolers. Might break the cycle.
Peace.
How very sad, but very true.
There are probably other exceptions, such as a crisis in another country that has the backing and support of the world community due to global outreach, but other than that, and what was mentioned, it's a racket. Excellent post.
If you agree with the General, which may be right, you are an isolationist. Which is fine, I may very well be one as well. The question is, as an isolationist you have to be ok with the fact...I repeat fact...that millions of people will die a nasty and horrible death around the world. Which is ok, if your an isolationist. Protect our borders and no more is ok, as long as your willing to lock the door and look the other way. Are you willing to do that?
Tim - I agree with Butler's premise that we should not go to war for profit and corporatism.
There will, however, be events that require a WORLD response (UN) and we should remain committed to that end. I can think of one or two right now, and Iraq certaintly wasn't one of them.
John, I've never heard of Gen. Butler, and I'm embarrassed of that fact. I feel like I'm recalling an old conversation with my grandfather reading your post. Thanks.
Now I'll read War is a Racket continuing to never forget.
But John, your asking to have it both ways...one mans Iraq is another mans darfur..whose to say which one is the right cause? Who is more oppressed? Which people deserve to live? You wanna make that call? Or should we be consistent and help all nations? Or as the general advises, protect our own and the hell with the rest?
Tim - We could debate all night on this. Could, but will not. I have better ways to spend my time.
Iraq under Hussein was a contained animal. It is now, thanks to reckless policy and ambitions, a monster on the loose and a breeding ground for terrorism.
Darfur could be getting some much needed attention right now (Not to mention Afghanistan) if we weren't mired in Iraq.
Agree to disagree, if we must. These are my final thoughts on this for the night.
Elmo - I also was unaware of him until yesterday. It's always good to keep your antenna up for new information. Too many people waste their lives in front of the television.
Remember: When we stop learning, we begin dying.
Respectfully, that's a dodge...right now, not yesterday, not last year, who do you propose to save? Darfur? Bosnia? Iraq? Who?Over 3/4 of the world lives in oppression and has their balls cut off daily..Don't tell me what we should have done, tell me what we should do? If you honestly want to leave Iraq, that's fine, are you prepared to watch all those throats get slit? This is September 2006, and it doesn't matter right this minute WHY we are there...What matters is right now, is what are we going to do?
For all the Bush bashing, I still have not heard from anyone else, republican, democrat, libertarian or martian what is a good idea now????????????
timmy,
I guess John's point about using the UN didn't sink in through. The popint is that pre-invasion, Saddam was well contained and suffering under sanctions imposed by the US and Uk following the first Gulf War. The reasons we were given as to why we needed to invade Iraq have all been proven to be a lie, leaving the "Saddam was a bad man" argument". Why was Saddam bad? Because he tortured his people, and now we have the Bush administration gaining congressional approval for same said actions. Killing his people? More civilians have died under US occupation than were killed by saddam under his tenure. He raped women? US soldiers are not only raping our own female troops but teenage Iraq females as well. So what's so good about this war?
Awesome info. I saved it and will share it. I think the military use of depleted uranium fits in here. War not only destroys, it posions.
Trollwatcher...you didn't answer my question...what do we do now?
Isn't it fucking pathetic that these men have to come out and make a stand in public? They didn't want to do that, you know they didn't. But they felt the need to do it because that fuckwit in the oval office just doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks other than his boyz.
Great post John. Gen. Butler is one of my alltime favorite Marine legends. Along with Chesty Puller, Dan Daly and Carlos Hathcock. Being a former Marine, I recognized the name right away. Those guys were the absolute best of the Corps.
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Tim,
Perhaps a good start would be if - instead of giving Halliburton billions to scam as war profiteers - we should have hired Iraqis to rebuild their own country. They would have a vested interest in recovering their own infrastructure. In addition, many of the so-called terrorists - I call them insurgents or freedom fighters - wouldn't be accepting money from al Qaeda to bomb US troops if they had good paying jobs rebuilding their nation to support their families. We could pull our troops back to a close location and operate more of a SWAT force than a police force. Our troops would no longer be standing targets for the insurgents. Our presence is simply causing more problems than they're solving. I'll have more to say about this later today, but all 16 of our intelligence agencies have come to a consensus that our occupation of Iraq is creating more terrorists and making the world - not safer as the Bush administration claims - a much more dangerous place.
I understand that your Bush tattoo itches and burns everytime you hear anything contrary to what your "fearless leader" says, but like the old saying goes, "the truth hurts" and "the bitter truth is never sweet".
Tim I shall answer your question.
1st please understand Smedley's words.
Perhaps you heard of RICO.
That is the acronym for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
This was a groundbreaking Law designed to fight organized crime. Mafia, Drug Cartels, Money Launderers etc.
What Smedley is saying, is it's these same type of hoodlums who are running the Racket called War. They just happen to be a the top of the Organized Crime heap.
Now to answer your question -
It predisposes that the driving reason behind both the American Iraq War and any Military type of intervention in Darfur , is some type of good intentions. They are not. Both are Rackets.If it ain't lucrative to the top Racketeers than Military Intervention does not happen.
On the overall question what do we do?
1st - The Racketeers, which in this present time in History, I define as the Bush Regime(includes many Dems),
the Lobbyists, Military Industrial Complex members(especially the revolving door people) and the people you and I never see, need to be busted, thrown in Jail, tried and sentenced. Ones that are indicted for War Crimes in the ICC are to be sent there for trial.
War is their con and we are the patsies.
2nd - We form a Government For and BY the People.
Immediate Action - Re-authorize the over 300 Environmental Laws and Regulations that Bush nullified within hours of taking office.
Declare Energy Independence and the National Debt the Highest Priorities.
Sign the ICC Convention. Re-sign Geneva Conventions. Re-sign/Renegotiate Kyoto.
Withdraw All Military from Afghanistan and Iraq to the UAE and Home.
Withdraw all Military assistance from Brutal Dictators or in Smedley's term Foreign Racketeers.
Stop running Slave Farms around the World.
Stop running drugs.
Stop selling Weapons.
All those Illegal’s? If we actually had a Good Neighbor Policy with the Southern People’s and not the Foreign Policy beholden to the Racketeers they might want to raise their families in their home country. Oh yeah, that reminds me. We spend at least a few Billion on condoms. We gotta. Just give ‘em to the Highschool boys. We gotta face it, the Bunny Cage is getting crowded. Instead of bombing other people, we rain condoms on them.
Raise Taxes. The debt in really at least twice the actual figure, yeah I know hard to prove. But hey do you remember the so-called Prescription Drug Benefit for the Seniors? The Federal Actuary told Congress it would cost, mm I forget but I think it was 200 Billion.
Later he said he lied, and was told to do so by his Superior. The real cost was gonna be 200 Billion more. This was right before the vote. His Superior confirmed what the Actuary claimed, but said he was only joking. The Bill was passed only after the vote was held open way past the usual 15 Minutes, while Delay and other Racketeers twisted arms on the floor, for they were lacking Party support. One Repub. Congressman claimed the next day that Delay said he would withhold $ money from the Congressman’s
son's run to replace Dear ol Dad., if he did not change his vote on the Medicare Bill, which he did. Keep the Racket in the Family, Capiche'?
Oh and the Actuary’s Superior? He resigned and started working at a Big Pharma a few days later. BTW- The Law also states that the Government can't negotiate the prices with Big Pharma.
My Mom if she had lived this year would have paid over $800.00 more in medication than last year.
Hey, it would not hurt our family, however, how many can't lay that claim?
We tell the MFG Big Pharma Co what we are gonna pay. Let's at least cut it down to what the amount Congress thought they were voting for. There’s 200 Billion.
We gotta raise taxes. The Racketeers really screwed us good. They plowed a hole wide and deep.
So I say it's at least twice that.
The 500k+ crowd gets taxed at an increase of 10%.
Everybody else over 45k 3%. Till we are solvent.
Have a "Energy Independence Bond" and have all those rich Hollywood people put their time and money where their mouth's are and Buy a lot Bonds and have Bond Drives like we did in WWII. I don't know, but people seemed to have some type of Collective thought back then.
The Cruise's could give out ink footprints of Suri for $100.00 a pop (xtra for parent signed copies). You know people would eat that sh** up. Get Oprah in on hit. Everybody in her audience get's a $1,000 EI BOND.
Go after Capital taking flight off shore. They have to reports all Foreign Deposits and Investments.
All the Big Boys have Billions and Billions offshore.
And get this. We due it Retroactively.
Those Racketeers we threw in jail? Maybe you don't know, but the Government can seize all assets obtained through Racketeering. Hell, just with the Bush Crime Family, Clinton Clan, Cheney and Halliburton, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and all the other MFkrs, we could take in at least a few Billion.
Sorry Exxon ya gotta Bank American if you want to Fly the Flag over your banks.
Enact a Law to break up the "News Monopolies"
With a a few Billion from the RICO seizures, fund Local Public Broadcasting. We need a Common. With our Population, and our need to communicate on Common Ground TV fits the Bill perfectly. In addition, and you may know this, but originally the rules were that Broadcasting Companies had to provide a Public Service. I'm 44 and I sure see a lot less Public Service on the TV than I used too. Make all for profit provide at least 2% "Broadcast" time to public service. Real service.
Companies will want to sponsor the "breaks". Believe me, they will. Look at all the money BP is putting into the "Green" image.
End Corporate Welfare. End the whole screwed up notion that a company has personhood.
Cut the Military Budget by 50% Or at least account for the money. In 2001 the Pentagon could not account for over a Trillion. Some Racket Huh? Say we save 500 Billion a year through cuts and the novel idea of a balanced check book.
The money saved from that -
30%(of mil.) to Natl. Debt
10%(of mil.) - Subsidized Hybrids. .
50 Billion for Hybrids. There's a catch though. 45 Billion for Domestic Made in the USA vehicles. The base price for the Toy a few months ago was $21,000 and something.
There are around 200 million Cars operating in America.
This will reduce energy dependence so we don't have to cannibalize other Humans to live and we will stand a lot less chance suffering from severe global warming consequences.
4%(of mil.) - Subsidies and Grants for Alternative Energy Companies and Educ. Institutions.
5% To the bldg of Bikeways in major Metro Area in a green zone area. I say we get the kids who we gonna send to kill and die for our energy needs build them. With medical care. And a GI Bill. This one meaning Green Issue.
Which reminds me. Raise the Min. wage to $7.50. The take in taxes is well worth it. Has worked every time.
Cut funding for stupid sh**. I’d say the stupid sh** price tag has gotta be a few Billion, don’t ya think?
Hey a few Billion here a few Billion here and what ya think we might get it licked? The point is, if we end the Racket and make the Collective System of Democracy work for The People, we might stand a chance of evolving beyond Cannibalism.
One thing is for sure, when We the People Abdicate our hold on the reins of government a void is created that is naturally filled by a group that is not beholden to the people. This is the present situation today. The power is Corporate not Populist.
From War to the new school soccer field there is a price to pay for letting others decide where our Treasure is spent and our priorities lay. The bottom line is, if it is not a Government by and for the People, it is by and for some other interest.
We are supposed to be Citizens not subjects.
That’s my plan. I’m on the Common. What’s yours?
Robert, real quick, so this time you believe the intelligence community? What restored your faith in their capability? The fact that their opinion now is like yours?
shame shame flip flop...
As for the Halliburton tirade....once again....all you're doing is whining, pissing and moaning about what has already happened.
Human: I gotta study that rant for a spell.....
I answered this in the similar comment you made over at LOC. But here goes again. I NEVER said the intelligence community was "full of shit". What I did say was that the Bush administration manipulated and omitted intelligence that ran counter to their agenda to rush us into an ill conceived and poorly executed war in Iraq.
Big difference there, pal! By the way, when everyone has read this report and it says exactly what I reported, what will be your spin then? Just curious if you've already worked out your B.S. as a contingency plan. And you can have the last word, I don't care to spar with unarmed opponents.
Thanks for the last word..
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Tim - There I go and make the mistake of answering your question in a conversational tone on Common Ground and all you say is I'm ranting. You are just buying time.
What is your plan. Your chant, like so many Bush supporters is that the left does not have a plan and just are critics whatever Bush does. So, what's your plan?
Tim,
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
OK, the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. Best wishes on that journey.
Well Human, our time on this earth is rapidly boiling down to choosing one of two scenarios, either one of which I'm fine with.
Plan 1... I'd suggest increasing the troops in Iraq by 100k and blasting the living bejesus out of the "freedom fighters" in and around bagdad.
Cut off all economic trade with Iran and tell them as soon as bagdad is cleared out they will be next on our list. There is no doubt their whackjob leader was instrumental in the kidnap/hostage crisis 25 years ago. He needs to die. Period.
Once Bagdad is secure and Irans' balls are cut off we politely tell our ally in Pakistan we love him dearly, but 50,000 US troops are coming over to purge him of the taliban from the east all the way through Afghanistan.
Note to Chavez: You will be right after North Korea...
or # 2. Pick up our marbles and go home. Build a big frickin'wall around the whole country with anti ballistic missile silos around the entire country and adopt an isolationist foreign policy. Frick everybody else and take care of our own. It just requires a little intestinal fortitude and a strong committment to let the rest of the world kill each other off.
Oh, I guess there is a third choice you guys might find more palatable, we can just try to talk to them...you know "open a dialogue"...share a coke, sing kumbaya and hold hands...
Domestically, make the tax cuts permanent... Do away with the minimum wage completely...
I could go on and on but suffice to say if you take most of your wish list and just do the opposite I'd be a happy guy.
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Good little Bushusefool. Now go and put on a Uniform or Join a Merc outfit and backup what you and all the other Sick Bastards from the Sick Far Right claim and Kill and Die for your Glorious Leader.
You know somthing, Tim is someone I might have fragged while I was in! But thne he would have had to go in to begin with.
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