WAR IS A RACKET, Major General Smedley Butler

(Exerpt from a speech given in 1933; think about what he says and what's going on today with our economy and all. Also available in complete form as a book)
War is 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's about. It is conducted for the benefit of a 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% over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100%. 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 2 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.
MAJOR GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER, PICTURED HERE
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has "finger men"
to point out enemies, it's "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 33 years and 4 months in active military service as a member of the 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 a part of the 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 rapng of haof 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 see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. (AND NOT FOR YOUR INTERESTS - THEY HAVE ALL BUT KILLED OUT SMALL AND MEDIUM LOCAL BUSINESS TO MAKE ROOM FOR CORPORATIONS LIKE WAL-GREENS, WAL-MART, SHELL, ETC, IN BOTH OUR NATION AND OTHERS. THEY TAKE MORE THAN THEIR FAIR SHARE AND SOCK IT AWAY IN BANKS BECAUSE TOO MUCH IS NEVER ENOUGH, WHEREAS WE WOULD SPEND THAT MONEY AND KEEP THE ECONOMY HEALTHY. LOOK UP OUR DEAL WITH HUSSEIN IN THE 80S AND 90S WHEN WE WANTED HIM TO DO OUR WORK IN IRAN, AND HOW THE OIL COMPANIES WANT IN IRAQ. LOOK UP AFTER THE WORLD WARS, AS FOR THE OIL INTERESTS, AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTER FORMING OF ISRAEL. ONE THING WILL LEAD TO ANOTHER, AND IF YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW ALL THIS, YOU'LL FIND OUT THINGS ARE MUCH WORSE THAN YOU EVER SUSPECTED AS FAR AS OUR GOVERNMENT AND WHO THEY TRULY WORK FOR, AND WALL STREET. WALL STREET IS MERELY A WAY FOR THE MEGA-FILTHY-RICH TO GET RICHER,AND TAKE MORE FROM EVERYONE ELSE. CHECK OUT HOW THE FUTURES MARKET WORKS, AND YOU'LL SEE WHY WE'RE SUFFERING HIGH INTERESTS AND LAY-OFFS ETC RIGHT NOW. SORRY, I RANT SOMETIMES)
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've given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate his racket in 3 districts. I operated on 3 continents.
(The article was published, when I read it, by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade - COAT)
In the early 1930s, some of America's wealthiest industrialists and bankers plotted to overthrow the government of President Franklin D Roosevelt and replace it with a facist dictatorship. Thanks to one of the greatest whistleblowers of all time, we know the names of trhe prominent Wall Street financiers (both Republican and Democrat) who organized and backed this plot. The whistleblower was a US military hero named Major General Smedley Darlington Butler. For 33 years Butler, a 2 time recipient of the prestigious US Medal of Honor, had fought with the Marines. He helped invade numerous countries, subdued native revolts, oversaw fraudulent elections, and forced regime changes on nations to bring them in line with US ecomonic interests. All this, he later said, was done in order to protect America's foreign investments.
In 1933, the year Hitler took control of Germany, some of Wall Street's top financiers sent representatrives to recruit the recently retired General Butler into a facist coup d' etat to overthrow FDR. Butler played along in order to find out who was behind the scheme, and then, in 1934, he testified under oath before the MacCormack - Cickstein House Commitee that was examining Nazi propaganda in the US.\
Butler named names and exposed the key facist plotters. He also identified a high- powered business organization, the American Liberty League, as the "super- organization" behind the plan for an American coup. Thanks to General Butler, this Wall Street lan to subvert democracy was thwarted. However, none of the multi- millionaires behind the plot were ever questioned by legal authorities, let alone charged or put on trial for treason.
In fact, they continued to work behind the scenes, throughthe American Liberty League, to sabotage FDR's "New Deal" administration.
-- COAT --
And you know these were not the only ones to try such things, to DO such. Over the decades, looking at our history, I think it's clear, they finally succeeded to some degree. Our laws come into our homes and butt into our personal business, yet when it comes to controlling Wal Street, politicians won't do anything to protect us, for fear of trampling on the rights of faceless corporations? Free enterprise? You cannot have free enterprise when the common person cannot stay in business because big corporations smush you or buy you up. Dem or Rep, Clinton or Obama or Palin or McCain or just about any of em, they work for Wall Street - NOT for you and me, not for the United States of America. And we CAN do something about it, if we just WOULD. First step, GET INFORMED. Take no pol's word, nor the media (corporate media). I don't care who won, nor who you voted for, if you checked the history of these people first. But most do not. They vote for the best looking, or smoothest speakers, or best liar, etc. The records are there, easy with the Internet. There is no excuse. We voted Bush in, TWICE. We did. It's been said, the people get the government they deserve, and that is exactly the reason.)