As much as things change they stay the same...
Today while researching an attempted coup d'etat against FDR...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1100606#1100849I learned about General Smedley Darlington Butler, a decorated Marine who exposed the plot against FDR.
Butler wrote a book, The Racket of War.
Here's a little bit of what he said...
"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."
In regards to WWI...
"It has been estimated by statisticians and economists and researchers that the war cost your Uncle Sam $52,000,000,000. Of this sum, $39,000,000,000 was expended in the actual war period. This expenditure yielded $16,000,000,000 in profits. That is how the 21,000 billionaires and millionaires got that way. This $16,000,000,000. . . . went to a very few."
I'm off to search the local library system for this one..