War Is A Racket
home Iraq War no local find frame, full screen Google search web for topic jump to footer translate with Babelfish by Roedy Green ©2002-2008 Canadian Mind Products

Introduction Guilty Of Torture Cindy Sheehan Protest
9/11 Torture Glossary The Muslims Will Kill Us All!
Blog To Discuss The Iraq War Bush’s Five Big Lies Don’t Marry A Soldier
American Terrorists Bush’s Untrue WMD Statements Don’t Enlist
American War Criminals How You Know Bush Lied about WMDs Do Enlist
Disrespecting American Soldiers Iraq War Motives The Coming Draft
Joke Altruistic War Motives The Ideal war
Iraq War Casualty Pictures Selfish War Motives Spoken Word Links
Abu Ghraib Torture Pictures Popular War Motives Video Links
Navy Seals Pictures Economic Cost of the Iraq War Books
Fallujah Pictures Beheadings Related Essays by Roedy
DU Baby Pictures History Links
Culprit Pictures Why The Iraqis Fight So Hard Taking Action
Protestor Pictures What The Iraqis Want What You can Do
Links To Pictures Republican Denial Mark Twain’s War Prayer
Body Counts Republicans Pretend Not To Notice War Is A Racket
Defense Science Board Saddam Hussein Wounds by Dr. Norman Bethune
Atrocities Future How Will The Iraq War End?
Tortures Mind Your Own Business! Conclusions

War Is A Racket

This is piece was written way back in 1933, but is still just as relevant. It is an excerpt from a speech by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. Smedley Butler is one of only 19 people in the entire history of the US military to have been awarded the The Congressional Medal of Honor twice. The Medal of Honor is the highest award given by the US military.

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.


CMP_homejump to top next page
CMP logo
feedback Please email your feedback for publication, errors, omissions, broken/redirected link reports
and suggestions to improve this page to Roedy Green : feedback email
made with CSS
HTML Checked!
ICRA ratings logo
mindprod.com IP:[65.110.21.43]
Your face IP:[38.103.63.17] Spread the Net
You are visitor number 9,793.
You can get a fresh copy of this page from: or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/Mindprod website mirror)
http://mindprod.com/politics/warracket.html J:\mindprod\politics\warracket.html