Anti Federalist
04-19-2014, 02:50 PM
Nice little blog entry on Uncle Smedley.
Appropriate for Patriots Day, I think.
Butler, Bankers, War and More
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/butler-bankers-war-and-more/#more-486342
Charles Burris
For LRC readers not familiar with Smedley Darlington Butler, I should point out that he was a Major General in the US Marine Corps, the highest rank at that time.
At the time of his death in 1940, he was the most decorated Marine in United States history, having received 16 medals, five for heroism, including two Congressional Medals of Honor.
In a speech delivered in 1933, Butler said of war and the men behind it:
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 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 benefit 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.”
Butler later expanded his perceptive observations in his book below:
War is a Racket, by Smedley Darlington Butler
Smedley Darlington Butler – Amazon book and DVD list
Smedley Darlington Butler was also the savior of our constitutional republic from a fascist plot by plutocratic militarists in the early 1930s. Watch this excellent History Channel documentary based on Jules Archer’s brilliant book, The Plot To Seize The White House, which details the Wall Street/American Legion attempted fascist coup d’état against President Franklin Delano Roosevelt heroically exposed by Butler.
Appropriate for Patriots Day, I think.
Butler, Bankers, War and More
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/butler-bankers-war-and-more/#more-486342
Charles Burris
For LRC readers not familiar with Smedley Darlington Butler, I should point out that he was a Major General in the US Marine Corps, the highest rank at that time.
At the time of his death in 1940, he was the most decorated Marine in United States history, having received 16 medals, five for heroism, including two Congressional Medals of Honor.
In a speech delivered in 1933, Butler said of war and the men behind it:
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 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 benefit 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.”
Butler later expanded his perceptive observations in his book below:
War is a Racket, by Smedley Darlington Butler
Smedley Darlington Butler – Amazon book and DVD list
Smedley Darlington Butler was also the savior of our constitutional republic from a fascist plot by plutocratic militarists in the early 1930s. Watch this excellent History Channel documentary based on Jules Archer’s brilliant book, The Plot To Seize The White House, which details the Wall Street/American Legion attempted fascist coup d’état against President Franklin Delano Roosevelt heroically exposed by Butler.