Former Marine gets schooled by former Marine, Adam Kokesh, on Major General Smedley Butler…
Oh, I so hope he got that card and learned some more. So many think they’re proponents of freedom when really, they’re just walking oxymorons.
Tag: Major General Smedley Butler
this is what a hero looks like
Who is Smedley Butler?
a.k.a: The Fighting Quaker, Old Gimlet Eye and Old Duckboard
lived: July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940
served: 34 years in USMC
awarded: Navy Medal of Honor
Navy Medal of Honor
Army Distinguished Service Medal
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Brevet Medal
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler was the most decorated US Marine at the time of his death. Realizing wars are fought for corporate interests, Butler became a critic of US war profiteering. He gave speeches in hopes of saving young military men’s lives. He ultimately wrote a book, ‘War is a Racket’, where he explained, through his military experience, the truth about war and the consequences of fighting them.
Who is Smedley Butler? A HERO DEFINED
‘War is a Racket’ was a speech written and given by Butler. It’s success led him to write a longer, 14 page, booklet with the same name.
Excerpts from Butler’s speech, ‘War is a Racket’, given in 1933…
“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…”
– Smedley Butler, 1933
Excerpts from Butler’s 14 page booklet, ‘War is a Racket’…
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.’
CHAPTER THREE
Who Pays The Bills?
…In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn’t join the army.
So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side . . . it is His will that the Germans be killed.
And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies . . . to please the same God. That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious.
Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the “war to end all wars.” This was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a “glorious adventure.”
– Smedley Butler, 1935
Butler supported the men of the Bonus Army and on July 19, 1932, Retired Major General Butler spoke to the WWI Veterans at the Anacostia Camp where they were waiting for politicians to decide if they would get their ‘bonus’ pay.
More interesting stuff…
Smedley Butler speaks about US politics at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, September 25, 1935
‘Get All Americans out of China, says General Butler’, September 2, 1937
Snippet from Smedley Butler’s speech, ‘War is a Racket’
“There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.”
– Smedley Butler
“We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.”
– Smedley Butler
“Why don’t those damned oil companies fly their own flags on their personal property — maybe a flag with a gas pump on it.”
– Smedley Butler
“How many of these war millionaires shoulder a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dugout? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?”
– Smedley Butler
no one told them
We’ve all been tricked, manipulated, lied to, and conned.
The American soldier does not die for freedom. He dies for profit.
Let no more be fooled.
“No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits.
No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here.
No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents.
They were just told it was to be a ‘glorious adventure’.”
quotes on bullshittery
Just some quotes that speak to me and speak to truth. I’ll add to this list as quotes are remembered or found.
“Truth is treason in an empire of lies”
– George Orwell
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and 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 benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might 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.”
– Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, 1935
“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant funds demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.”
– Douglas MacArthur, 1957
“For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”
– John F. Kennedy, April 27, 1961
‘Let it not be said that no one cared. That no one objected once it’s realized that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy.’
– Ron Paul
‘Now, to balance the scale, I’d like to talk about some things that bring us together, things that point out our similarities instead of our differences. ‘Cause that’s all you ever hear about in this country. It’s our differences. That’s all the media and the politicians are ever talking about; the things that separate us, things that make us different from one another.
That’s the way the ruling class operates in any society. They try to divide the rest of the people. They keep the lower and the middle classes fighting with each other so that they, the rich, can run off with all the fucking money! Fairly simple thing. Happens to work.
You know? Anything different; that’s what they’re gonna talk about, race, religion, ethnic and national background, jobs, income, education, social status, sexuality, anything they can do to keep us fighting with each other, so that they can keep going to the bank!
You know how I define the economic and social classes in this country? The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class. Keep ’em showing up at those jobs.’
– George Carlin
Bullshittery 