War is a racket.

[Harmony Blue]

I may be a young a guy, but I am not stupid. Let me be clear as possible.... .War is a Racket.

l feel like going somewhere to hide as my country marches into another costly (in some many ways) war while our infrastructure falls apart, and food stamps (biggest boost to our economy)is on the chopping block.

I work with a lot of kids that are just out of high school and they see their limited options as either working retail forever or joining the military. When I try to warn them that by joining the military that they have to accept that the U.S. has had the propensity to be in a lot of wars. By choosing this path it is a very risky one and they should seriously reconsider. Now I fear that these young kids are going to be sent into another meat grinder and it churns my stomach. It feels like I didn't do enough stop them from choosing this path but when they are legally adults there isn't much I can do but only hope they heed my words. My father was right, and I miss him dearly but War is a Racket.

[Cleita]

1. Now you get it.

It's for the profit of the weapons manufacturers. Arming people is not going to decrease the violence but escalate it and when one side wins another war will be financed by us and Russia and others who will profit perpetual war and Wall Street profits.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for General Smedley Butler. n/t

-Laelth

[SnowCritter]

8. Beat me to it!

[Hotler]

3. Here you go young man. Have a good read. And welcome to DU.

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

[Harmony Blue]

4. Thank you

it is a good read.

[nineteen50]

5. Remember

"Mission Accomplished" how many wars and assasinations.

[Civilization2]

6. and now so is "intelligence" and "surveillance",.

all run and operated by private for-profit corporate contractors.

Wonder what their motivation is? to create peace? or more war and terror??

[gvstn]

7. You are very observant

I noticed over the last three decades that no matter how good things are going with international relations the U.S. will always find somewhere that needs a major intervention (war) at least once a decade. I think it is a matter of cleaning up our weapons stock so that we can order up the newest high-tech versions of missiles and such and help feed the military industrial complex. It happens without fail. Of course, the last decade was the "War on Terror" which has gone off the rails and threw out the old more conservative once every 10 year model.

It is very depressing.

Please do tell the kids to stay out of the military. It seems the one thing we won't spend money on is the soldiers that are ill-effected by these transparently pointless wars.

[valerief]

9. War is THE racket. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. And, there's a helluva lot of racketeers in Washington trying to sell it to us as "protection".

[Angelonthesidelines]

11. The military...

"Option" is the lowest level of civil society for the young to consider.

Think a bit,
The soldier/fighter's primary purpose is to kill people on an industrial scale. Our modern angels of death are unsurpassed in strength and size. One airplane can shower entire villages in 7000 bullets per minute.

Basic training drill instructors yell at recruits that they are the lowest scum of the bottom feeders. An officer gentleman considers himself lower than any civilian.

Unfortunately the last decade reversed this order via our fawning corporate media. According to FOX and subsequently the rest, military service is the highest form of life. Apparently the men and women who serve are the "best" of us.

Ron Kovic was the best, he wanted to help, but his reward was costly until he saved his soul from the war ideals our military industrial complex depends upon.

"The pioneers of a warless world are the young men who refuse military service." - some really smart guy.

[Initech]

12. War is an extremely profitable racket.

Until we take that out of the equation, nothing will change. Companies like KBR, Halliburton, and Blackwater/XE should be on trial for what they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. We should be holding our own Nuremburg style trials and holding those thst committed war crimes under the BFEE responsible for what they did. Yet our elected representatives would rather give them another trillion dollar stalemate we cannot win. The mere thought of that makes me sick to my stomach.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

13. So it "Homeland Security"

Sure, we *could* have used the the surplus coming in at the end of the Clinton years (anybody else remember Greenspan talking about the possibility of paying off the national debt *too* quickly?) to build great schools, fantastic roads/bridges/dams, jumpstart clean energy alternatives, set up and model a great humanitarian aid program to help other countries when in trouble ... but really, isn't more fun to dress up in uniforms, talk tough and blow shit up? And - as a bonus - pick apart the Constitution.

Been a shitty century so far.

[Javaman]

14. The next question to ask is...

What is it that Syria has that we want?

[Catherina]

15. Can you get your hands on Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States?

It's available online for free viewing and I think even Showtime has it but it's important for them to watch things like that and start thinking NOW before jumping into that meat grinder. There are other options such as getting ESL credentials and working overseas for good NGOs where they'll see the other side of the propaganda. Thanks for what you do