War is Just a Racket

[Dave Monroe]

'War is Just a Racket'

Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933 by General
Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC. General Butler was
the recipient of two Congressional Medals of Honor.
 
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. . . . 

 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 (where
have I heard that name before?). 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. 

http://www.twf.org/News/Y2001/0911-Racket.html

Cf. ...

"Don't forget the real business of the War is buying
and selling. The murdering and the violence are
self-policing, and can be entrusted to
non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is
useful in many ways. It serves as spectacle, as
diversion from the real movements of the War. It
provides raw material to be recorded into History, so
that children may be taught History as sequences of
violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared
for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a
stimulus to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to
try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while they're still
here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of
markets." (GR, Pt. I, p. 105)

http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/


	
		
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