The US general told us, "War is a Racket"

GAB; Gen. Butler; Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

War Is a Racket is a short book by retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley D. Butler, a two-time Medal of Honor recipient.

It is based on his 34 years of military experience. The book discusses how business interests profit from war and perpetual conflict.

Gen. Butler was appointed commanding officer of the Gendarmerie during the U.S. imperial occupation of Haiti, which lasted 19 years.

• Smedley Darlington Butler (1881–1940) was a USMC major general, the highest rank at the time. He was the most decorated Marine in U.S. history when he passed away. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, Central America, the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in WW I. He later became an outspoken critic of U.S. wars and their consequences. He even exposed a businessmen's plan to overthrow the U.S. government. He received 16 medals, five for heroism, and was one of only 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor twice, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions. In 1933, in the Business Plot controversy, he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy businessmen/industrialists were plotting a military coup to overthrow U.S. Pres. FDR.

War? Shmore! We're making big money.

After he retired in 1931, he did a nationwide tour with a speech titled "War is a Racket." It was so well received that he wrote it out, expanded it, and published it as a short book.

Obey. Don't question authority!

It was condensed in Reader's Digest, which boosted its surging popularity. In the introduction to the condensed version, Lowell Thomas praised it.

War Is a Racket points to examples, mostly from WW I, that prove that industrialists are subsidized and enriched by publicly funded wars.

Their operations generate massive profits for private corporations and companies that milk money from mass human suffering.

These are the book's five short chapters:

1. War is a racket
2. Who makes the profits?
3. Who pays the bills?
4. How to smash this racket
5. To hell with war

It contains this SUMMARY:

Some media gets in trouble telling us the truth.

"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."

[That's why we have wars, not the lies they us and repeat in the mainstream media.] More