Smedley Butler - we need one of him NOW!

[Taverner]

General Butler was a Marine who was a good go to boy for the US for years - until wealthy industiralists asked him to lead a military coup against FDR. He came clean and named names - and was a hero as a result.

Theres much more to this story than this (read up on it someday) but we need one now!

[dogtag]

1. You might say that John Kerry was sort of a

Smedley Butler of his day! "War is a Racket" is a great read, written by Smedley (love that name) in 1935.

[AP]

3. Kerry was never the bag man for Wall St fascists as Butler admitted to...

being.

[dogtag]

5. He spoke truth to power.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. The only marine to make me proud of being one.

Ol' Smedley was a stand up guy. Cut right through the patriotic crappola of the time. We sure do need one of his kind now to speak out loudly about sending our troops to kill and die for oil rather than the bananas of his time.

[AP]

4. He wasn't a hero for what he did as a Marine. He was a hero for calling it

what it was after he left the Marines.

It's amazing how Wall St could not have picked a worse person to approach to lead their coup.

I mean, this guy laid it all out after they tried to recruit him. He called a fascist a fascist.

[librechik]

6. Have you heard General McPeak? Former Bush voter, now for Kerry

he speaks with enormous credibility on the incompetence of the Bush administration. Said he didn't know the guy, that's why he supported him in 2000,. He Knew Poppy and Bar, and showed respect for them. Now that he Knows what the Shrub is all about he is DESPERATE to get him back to Crawford. He was on Unfiltered this am, maybe there's a transcript or audio file somewhere.

[shance]

7. We actually have a number of Smedley (and Smedlette*) Butlers .

in the country. We even have some that come around on DU.

Look around. They are there.

There is also a bit of Smedley in everyone of us, if we just utilize it.

We certainly need to protect, support, defend and promote all the Smedley's of the world, especially in a time where bullies and power and constantly trying to beat down the truth and the spirit of what is right and good.

[anarchy1999]

8. Why no link?

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

Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

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.


http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

WAR IS A RACKET

Smedley Darlington Butler

Major General - United States Marine Corps

Born West Chester, Pa., July 30, 1881

Educated Haverford School

Married Ethel C. Peters, of Philadelphia, June 30, 1905

Awarded two congressional medals of honor, for capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914,

and for capture of Ft. Riviere, Haiti, 1917

Distinguished service medal, 1919

Retired Oct. 1, 1931

On leave of absence to act as director of Department of Safety, Philadelphia, 1932

Lecturer - 1930's

Republican Candidate for Senate, 1932

Died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, June 21, 1940

For more information about Major General Smedley Butler, contact the United States Marine Corps.

Chapter One

WAR IS A RACKET

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the 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 very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

[Karenina]

9. Good on you, A99!

:kick: :yourock: :kick:

[anarchy1999]

10. Just help to keep it kicked up for a while, I've got to go.

Sorry.

Thanks.

Smedley is a personal favorite of mine.

[Karenina]

11. Done.

:kick:

[greblc]

12. few too many people read or know the history...

of War. So we're doomed to repeat our mistakes.

But they can tell you won on "Survivor"

Semper Fi

[Karenina]

13. :SIGH:

:kick: