War Is a Racket

Bones

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Dec 27, 2010
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Kudos to Major General Smedley Butler for exposing war for what it really is. A racket.

War Is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC

This is a speech delivered in 1933.

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.


There's more in the link. It's all spot on and relevant even in 2011.
 
Butler is a perfect example of how a courageous and honorable Military general could become a very bad politician and perhaps a tool of the socialist movement which was popular in the early 3o's. His testimony before a congressional committee regarding a so-called "business plot" is sufficient cause to dismiss his entire civilian speaking career. Butler alleged that he was approached by "wealthy industrialists" to lead a half a million WW1 Veterans in a military coup of the FDR administration. The allegations were proven unfounded. Butler also alleged that the American Legion was controlled by "wealthy bankers". It's a shame that Butler's left wing rantings would tarnish his 34 year service in the Marines but it is an example that heroism on the battlefield does not always translate to logical thinking in civilian life.
 
To his comment about nations acquiring additional territory, the only land the U.S. has ever asked for is enough in which to bury its dead.
 
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Of course war is bad, who in their right mind think there is anything good in it. It has alway been about one group forcing its will on another and how to profit from it. The big mistake we make is to assume that we know what is best and send in the troops to make it happen. Witness the Middle East. Was Sadam bad, you bet, was it any of our business, NO WAY. The minute we leave it will be back to business as usual. The people in that part of the world have not gotten along for over 2000 years and George Bush, Bill Clinton or Obama are not going to change a thing.
 
We are spending billions in Iraq and Afghanistan and have very little to show for it, so how is war good for the economy? we should all be living it up from our occupations if this was true right?
 
We are spending billions in Iraq and Afghanistan and have very little to show for it, so how is war good for the economy? we should all be living it up from our occupations if this was true right?
It's not about the country. It's about the corporation. The capitalist cares not for the nation-state.
 
There are a lot of profits being made in Iraq, it just not any of us.

Maybe if they spread the wealth and help out the economy with their riches, people would support the wars more.
Don't have to. All I have to do is tell you the Muslims are attacking and you're either with us or the terrorists.

Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.


 
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Let's see, according to Butler, he realized that war is a racket during peace time (1933). Since WW2 was well supported by Americans it seems that nobody thought war was a racket during wartime. Since every major conflict during the bloody 20th century happened under democrat administrations and the conflict in Afghanistan is still going on without any major opposition the conclusion must be that war is a racket only during republican administrations.
 
We are spending billions in Iraq and Afghanistan and have very little to show for it, so how is war good for the economy? we should all be living it up from our occupations if this was true right?
The country may not be benefiting from the occupation of Iraq (It was costing $2 billion/week in 2006, I suspect its costing that much in Afghanistan now as the troops and material were just shifted) but arms manufacturers & mercenaries were and are profiting from it.
We are spending billions in Iraq and Afghanistan and have very little to show for it, so how is war good for the economy? we should all be living it up from our occupations if this was true right?
It's not about the country. It's about the corporation. The capitalist cares not for the nation-state.

Profit overrides all else in business. Rand prolly said that :eusa_whistle:
 
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Granny says dey spent too much money on dat Tailhook convention...
:eek:
Army report: Military has spent $32 billion since ’95 on abandoned weapons programs
Friday, May 27,`11: In 2000, the Comanche helicopter ranked as the most important planned buy for the Army. Four years later, the program — which had consumed close to 20 years of work and nearly $6 billion — was abruptly shuttered.
The Army’s Comanche helicopter was envisioned as “the quarterback of the digital battlefield,” a technologically superior aircraft that could hide from enemies, operate at night and in bad weather, and travel farther than any other helicopter. Gen. Richard Cody, a former vice chief of staff of the Army, called it the “most flexible, most agile” aircraft the country had ever produced. In 2000, it ranked as the most important planned buy for the Army. Four years later, the program — which had consumed close to 20 years of work and nearly $6 billion — was abruptly shuttered.

It is one of 22 major Army weapons programs canceled since 1995, ringing up a price tag of more than $32 billion for equipment that was never built. A new study, commissioned by the Army and obtained by The Washington Post, condemns the service’s efforts as “unacceptable.” The study is the latest indication that the Pentagon — and the defense industry, in turn — is undergoing a seismic shift in its approach to new programs. As pressures mounted in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military retreated from its ambitions for multibillion-dollar, technologically superior systems. Instead, it was forced to make better use of tried-and-true equipment.

For almost a decade, the Defense Department saw its budgets boom but didn’t make the kind of technological strides that seemed possible. “Since 9/11, a near doubling of the Pentagon’s modernization accounts — more than $700 billion over 10 years in new spending on procurement, research and development — has resulted in relatively modest gains in actual military capability,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an address last week. That outcome, he said, is both “vexing and disturbing.”

Gone are the days of “no-questions-asked funding requests,” he said. The Defense Department must make do with less. It is focusing on fixing up older equipment and taking a more measured approach to weapon development. The shifting strategies and a shrinking defense budget have triggered the biggest restructuring in the defense industry since the end of the Cold War. Contractors big and small have been rethinking their portfolios and buying and selling accordingly. Northrop Grumman, for instance, spun off its shipbuilding unit. And Robert J. Stevens, chief executive of Lockheed Martin, said last week that the company’s workforce, which has shrunk by 20,000 since 2009, “may well continue to decline.”

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Little has changed since Tailhook...
:eek:
Little has changed since Tailhook, based on Lackland scandal testimony
January 23, 2013 WASHINGTON — More than 20 years after the infamous Navy Tailhook scandal that awakened the public to sexual assault in military, too little has been done to reverse an epidemic of sexual violence within its ranks, lawmakers and sexual assault victims said on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
And with last year’s scandal erupting at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland’s Air Force’s sole Basic Training Center -- in which Air Force instructors allegedly preyed upon new recruits -- the public outcry for change has grown too loud to ignore. In response, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the scandal Wednesday, after more than 78 members of Congress and about 15,000 people signed an online petition demanding hearings to get a full accounting of the scandal. “I find it extremely disturbing that despite the collective work of Congress, the Department of Defense, the military services and the dedicated groups who advocate on the part of the victims of this heinous crime, sexual assault and sexual misconduct remains a problem within our Armed Forces,” said Committee Chairman Buck McKeon.

So far, at least 32 instructors have been investigated for rapes, sexual assaults, criminal offenses and other inappropriate relationships involving 59 female and male trainees at Lackland over the past three years. Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force Chief of Staff, testified before Congress that in the wake of the scandal, the Air Force had completed six court-martial cases against military training instructors, all resulting in convictions, and two instructors received non-judicial punishment under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for having unprofessional relationships. Four more trials are scheduled, and 20 more instructors are under investigation, he said. “We can’t accept this. It’s horrible,” he said. “But I don’t believe that it’s the entire Air Force that has this culture of sexual assault ... We have pockets of it,” he said, which the service was working to erradicate.

He and Gen. Edward Rice Jr., commander of Air Education and Training Command, outlined many of the 46 policy changes that the Air Force was instituting after recommendations by Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, who investigated Air Force training in the wake of the scandal. They include raising the percentage of female military training instructors to 25 percent and requiring that training instructors hold the higher rank of technical sergeant instead of staff sergeant, so they have more experience and maturity as trainers. Welsh also admitted that when investigating delays in reporting sexual assaults, investigators found a portion of culpability rested in the hands of commanders, who did not take necessary action. For that reason, the Air Force has taken steps to require that incidents be reported up the chain of command all the way to the two-star commander level within 24 hours, Welsh said.

The hearing testimony was blunted by criticism from Protect Our Defenders, a key advocacy group for victims of sexual assault in the military. The group held a press conference an hour before the hearing, with Tailhook whistleblower Paula Coughlin, sexual assault victim Terri Odom and attorney Susan Burke, who was featured in the documentary “The Invisible War,” nominated for an Oscar this year as a spotlight on the long-taboo epidemic of rape within the U.S. military. Coughlin and others asserted that although McKeon promised to hold “open and complete” hearings on the Lackland scandal, the committee had fallen short of that commitment, since not a single victim from that actual scandal was called to testify before Congress.

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See also:

More veterans showing Gulf War illness symptoms...

Report: New veterans showing Gulf War illness symptoms
January 23, 2013 WASHINGTON — Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be suffering from the 20-year-old set of symptoms known as Gulf War Illness, according to a new report released Wednesday by the federal Institute of Medicine.
"Preliminary data suggest that (chronic multisymptom illness) is occurring in veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well," the report says. This may be the first time that the symptoms suffered by veterans of the 1991 Gulf War have been linked to veterans of the current wars, which started in 2001 and 2003, said Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. It also means the Department of Veterans Affairs' definition of who qualifies for Gulf War veterans' benefits should include those who served in Afghanistan, said Paul Sullivan, a 1991 Gulf War veteran and founder of Veterans for Common Sense.

Because Wednesday's report associates the symptoms with deployment, Sullivan said, the VA "should expand the geographical definition of the current Gulf War to include the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan." The researchers were to investigate treatments for Gulf War illness, including any existing research, to see what worked for veterans. Their research included traumatic brain injury, which is caused by blunt force to the head or proximity to an explosion; post-traumatic stress disorder, which must involve exposure to trauma; respiratory problems, fibromyalgia and chronic pain.

Chronic multisymptom illness was formerly called Gulf War Syndrome, the Institute of Medicine report said. It includes symptoms in at least two of six categories: fatigue, mood and cognition issues, musculoskeletal problems, gastrointestinal problems, respiratory difficulties and neurologic issues that last for at least six months. About one-third of Gulf War veterans — or 175,000 to 250,000 people — have Gulf War illness.

The symptoms are too broad for any one treatment, the report said. "Based on the voluminous evidence we reviewed, our committee cannot recommend using one universal therapy to manage the health of veterans with chronic multisymptom illness, and we reject a 'one size fits all' treatment approach," said committee chair Bernard M. Rosof, chairman of the board of directors at Huntington Hospital in Huntington, N.Y., in a statement. "Instead, we endorse individualized health care management plans as the best approach for treating this very real, highly diverse condition." Researchers also said there may be no specific cause for the illness.

MORE
 
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Butler was a big FDR supporter and lucky for him he died a year before he could see what FDR's "racket" would cost us.
 
Sumpin' makin' `em sick...
:eek:
Gulf War illness: Many who served still report mysterious symptoms
April 21, 2014 ~ The collection of ailments that active duty soldiers and veterans reported after the operation to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait ended in 1991 were known as Gulf War syndrome, Gulf War illness and most recently, as chronic multi-symptom illness.
Garcia, a retired warrant officer, began to experience unusual ailments during Desert Shield, the advance operation for the war in 1990, and was medically evacuated shortly after his unit's trek through the infamous "highway of death" in Iraq. "I had severe post traumatic stress," Garcia said, "and I also began to experience short-term memory loss and severe fatigue. We saw literally hundreds of bodies of Iraqis on that road during the ground invasion, which took place after the bombing campaign. No one today ever saw that much death. We tried to maneuver around the bodies with our vehicles, but it wasn't always possible."

A total of 694,550 soldiers were deployed to the Persian Gulf region during the 1991 war, including servicemembers from Fort Bliss and National Guard soldiers and reservists from the El Paso and Southern New Mexico region. Gulf War-era soldiers who were not deployed to the Persian Gulf also reported similar health complaints, adding to the mystery over the source of the illness. The Veterans Affairs Department reported that there were 148 battle deaths during Desert Storm. To address the health complaints of veterans, U.S. officials set up the Gulf War Registry, which involved self-reporting the kinds of ailments that the veterans had.

Garcia, who became a veteran advocate with the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), had two of the hallmark symptoms commonly reported by Gulf War veterans shortly after the war: short-term memory loss and debilitating fatigue. "I still have to write things down because I forget," said Garcia, an officer for the DAV in Northeast El Paso. "We served in one of the most toxic environments ever known to the military. I managed to stick it out with these things going on until I finished serving my 20 years in the active service. Now, I act like a big brother to the new and younger veterans, helping them with their paperwork and referring to the proper agencies."

Patiño, 48, who operates the Rock House Art Gallery in Downtown El Paso, was medically discharged after 10 years of service. After more than 20 years, his flashbacks from the war have not gone away although they occur less frequently. "I am more fortunate than some of my friends from high school who served with me, and who were around the same age when we started," Patiño said. "Six of them developed health problems and died. I've had two heart attacks, the first one when I was 29 or 30 years old." The collection of ailments that active duty soldiers and veterans reported after the operation to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait ended in 1991 were known as Gulf War syndrome, Gulf War illness and most recently, as chronic multi-symptom illness. Other symptoms the soldiers reported were confusion, severe joint pain, lupus, Lou Gehrig's disease, depression, hair loss, multiple sclerosis, among others.

1 in 5 sick
 

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