Smedley Butler "War is a Racket"

[jimmyboots]

A reading from his short book. Found it interesting, hopefully it hasnt been posted before.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG10C5hniV4

[INAT]

I posted it in written form.He was also hired by Prescott Bush during WW2 to install a fascist government in the US.He worked with them to find out who was in the plot and then blew the whistle.Great American and a good read .The book is here http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[PanzerMaster]

I cite Gen. Smedley Butler's writings and President Eisenhower's farewell speech often... because a lot of American think that is "un-American" and "Socialist" thinking against the way of extreme-unregolated-capitalism that USA is gone/going.

Now, label Butler and Eisenhower as Socialists! ;)

[madjack]

I did a search on Prescott Bush and Smedley Butler. After going through several pages of articles on Prisonplanet, various anarchist, Jeff Rense, the democraticunderground and similar sites, I found one titled "The Morgan-British Fascist Coup Against FDR" at http://american_almanac.tripod.com/smedley.htm. It's from a Lyndon Larouche - affiliated publication so it should still be far enough out of the mainstream to appeal to you. There is no mention of Prescott Bush in it.
Two of the more interesting claims in the article, written during Bill Clinton's presidency, are that a similar cabal existed in the late 90's that sought to install Al Gore - minion of the Wall Street oligarchs - as a co-president. Also that it was the Brit financiers who installed Hitler in power.
But I digress.
British intelligence and their favorite co-conspirators, those ever-pervasive Jewish bankers, set in motion the plot and are aided and abetted by JP Morgan, Mellon, the Federal Reserve System and J. Edgar Hoover, a gay Mason.
I'd like to see something resembling objective research of this plot. It's an interesting story. Anybody got any real sources?

[Hollis]

I cite Gen. Smedley Butler's writings and President Eisenhower's farewell speech often... because a lot of American think that is "un-American" and "Socialist" thinking against the way of extreme-unregolated-capitalism that USA is gone/going.

Now, label Butler and Eisenhower as Socialists! ;)


Your post seems like something from about the turn of the century, 1900. You need to more forward a bit.

Suggest reading, In search of Excellence, By Tom Peters, Harvard business professor. the book is at least 20 years old. Laissez Faire Capitalism died out long ago.


BTW A lot of people don't know the difference between socialism and rheumatism. In the states it is just part of the partisan political landscape of scare tactics employed by the right. Similar to the left, yelling extreme-unregolated-capitalism or facism or something similar.

[el borracho]

Butler is an interesting character, for sure, a bit of a paradox when you contrast the early and later periods of his life. Back when I was in the service a Marine friend quoted Butler and I told him that was interesting given Butler's point of view after his military career. The Marine had no idea what I was talking about, I guess when studying him in boot camp they glossed over that part of his life.

[Maj C]

To understand Smedley Butler is to understand an enigma...a Quaker Marine who helped in some of America's most imperialistic endeavors. read Maverick Marine which is the best bio i've ever seen of him. I think you also have to understand some of the context in which he was speaking. First he was especially upset that he was passed over for Commandant of the Marine Corps. Secondly, many prominent Americans had similar isolationist/socialist views shaped by the Great Depression and post WW1 disillusionment. I don't think he ever lost his love of the USMC though and he is still a hero and great Marine as far as I'm concerned.

[LineDoggie]

I posted it in written form.He was also hired by Prescott Bush during WW2 to install a fascist government in the US.He worked with them to find out who was in the plot and then blew the whistle.Great American and a good read .The book is here http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm Umm, no he wasnt, the plot you alledge was in 1934 for one thing. For another, Butler only identified one man- Gerald C. MacGuire.
Prescott Bush wasnt named, and the charges he was a Nazi or Nazi Sympathizer are bull**** as well.

"Rumors about the alleged Nazi 'ties' of the late Prescott Bush ... have circulated widely through the internet in recent years. These charges are untenable and politically motivated. Despite some early financial dealings between Prescott Bush and a Nazi industrialist named Fritz Thyssen (who was arrested by the Nazi regime in 1938 and imprisoned during the war), Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathizer"
http://www.adl.org/Internet_Rumors/prescott.htm

But it makes for Grand BDS and Illuminati/X Files/Birther/Truther crap

[PanzerMaster]

Your post seems like something from about the turn of the century, 1900. You need to more forward a bit.

Maybe because I feel more like a 1800/1900 utopist enlightened than a current-day lefties (that, in my view, englobe also hippy anti-g8 and wealthy radical-chic... categories that I dislike because they are blind and rigid).



Suggest reading, In search of Excellence, By Tom Peters, Harvard business professor. the book is at least 20 years old. Laissez Faire Capitalism died out long ago.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will search info on this book.



BTW A lot of people don't know the difference between socialism and rheumatism. In the states it is just part of the partisan political landscape of scare tactics employed by the right. Similar to the left, yelling extreme-unregolated-capitalism or facism or something similar.

Yyou hit the nail on the head. The term "capitalism" is over-used and over-hyped... Yes you are completely right. I hate use this term because I sound like those you described.

But the problem is here. Today, we don't have an industrial-age reckless capitalism (at least in the western world... but look at the sweat shops in the developing world) but we have a quasi-plutocracy that is destroying from within our class structure. (I know that talking of "classes" can be also a bit marxist-retro... I use this term to define just the different levels of wealthy in people)

The current trend of USA and Western world tend more and more toward destroying and depaupering the middle class... thus creating a bigger rift between the "have-not" and the "have".

Look at the crisis in the USA (and then in the world: too much deregulation and laissez faire in the financial markets), or the impoverishment that the adoption of EURO brought to italy working class (the way on how was implemented, not the € itself).

I do not want to live in a country were 1% are filthy rich and the other 99% are barely-getting-by servants. This is the trend I see (I am exagerating with 1 and 99 percent, just to emphasize).

Disclaimer:
My background and political viewwas, and still be in a manner, of right-wing orientation, from teenager. But thanks to the internet and a curios and inquisitive nature that I have, I learned a lot and "evolved" (not changed) my mind.

I still believe in patriotism (were motherland mean my fellow honest countrymen and the land) in the power of the law (where crimininals are really prosecuted and convicted), the conservation of a country's culture and in a regulated-market economy. That make my right-wing?
But I also believe in social justice, solidariety to the weaker strata of society and that there must be a realistic and sustainable minimun level of wealth for everyone (left concept) with no cap on maximun (right concept).

I am an utopist, someone can label me left or right... I like to label myself "outside". ;)