General Smedley Butler Excerpt

[lala_rawraw]

General Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
Smedley Butler was the one of the most decorated war heroes in U.S. history, and received the Congressional Medal of Honor twice. His military genius (if not his politics) was greatly admired by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The Marine base on Okinawa was named after him.

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 many.

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.
<snip>

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.
http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm

[Coexist]

1. "it is conducted for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many"

how true.

[salvorhardin]

2. Truly awesome speech

The whole thing can be found online here: http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm