Profound Quotes

"Neither is it that US foreign policy is cruel because American leaders are cruel. It's that our leaders are cruel because only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorseless can hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment; it might as well be written into the job description. People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassion and empathy toward faraway powerless strangers - (let alone American soldiers - do not become president of the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state, or national security adviser or secretary of the treasury. Nor do they want to." From 'Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower' by William Blum

From "9-11, Six Years Later": "If one looks at the credentials of skeptics compared to the credentials of defenders of the official line, it is impossible to dismiss skeptics as kooks. There are many people with strong imaginations on the Internet, but serious skeptics stick to known facts, known violations of standard procedures and the laws of physics. The vast majority of the people who call skeptics "kooks" are themselves ignorant of physics and have little comprehension of the improbability that such an attack could succeed without either the complicity or complete failure of government agencies. " Paul Craig Roberts

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right." Martin Luther King, Jr.

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WAR IS A RACKET - Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired

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WAR IS A RACKET

by Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient

Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired

About the Author

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.

In the World War [I] 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.

WAR IS A RACKET - Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired.

May 16th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: agents provocateur, assassination, authoritarian followers, authoritarianism, civilian deaths, cointel, colonialism, confidence tricksters, corruption, covert operations, discrimination, double high authoritarians, espionage, fundamentalism, imperialism, kidnapping, militarism, military/industrial complex, politicians, pre-emptive war, psychopathy, psyops, racism, social dominators, social justice, totalitarianism/corporatism/fascism, vampire elite, vote rigging, war crimes | 2 comments |

2 comments to WAR IS A RACKET - Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired

  1. 1
    Chris Landau
    April 30th, 2010 at 11:57 am

    Dear Major General Smedley Butler
    I agree with you 100%. You summed it up perfectly. How does one get it across to each new generation of young people that get sucked into each new profitable war?
    Most will only learn this near the end of their lives, that they were just a pawn in somebody else’s manipulative game.
    I used to believe the old saying that when old men can not agree, young men die. And of course “War is good business. Invest your sons.”
    Now I believe it is “War is good business. Invest your neighbor’s sons.”
    It is the quiet grey men that we really have to be afraid of. Those that manipulate the politicians and the public for their own gain. Those that keep their friends close and their enemies closer. Those that learn our psyche but never let others know theirs.
    I think before we wage any war, the public must be made aware of the military contracts and who will benefit from this new war. Their profits should be published weekly in the press. On the front page, there should be a column of companies listing not only the weapons, the food, the beds, the tents, the trucks, the planes, the paper, the pens that are being used, but companies should not be allowed to use other “shell companies” to hide their involvement.
    Follow the money trail may stop many wars. Let the man in the street see who profits, before he acts before thinking.
    A geologist trying to stop oil drilling into a gigantic fault zone off the coast of southern California
    Now I am a geologist trying to stop the oil drilling into the 3000 mile fault zone crossing the Pacific Ocean. There was a massive blowout and environmental disaster in 1969 off the Santa Barbara coast. It is much like what is happening now off the Louisiana Coast with the Deep Water Horizon oil rig that exploded and sank that was operated by Transocean and leased by BP that was the cause of this new ecological disaster. I think that the crew got careless and were not watching their mud weight and nobody was paying attention to the background units of gas and the many gas horizons that they must have intersected. I think that Halliburton did a shoddy job of cementing the well casing. If they were running the e-logs which is an instrument, let down on a thick cable all the way to the bottom of this 18000 foot well, that measures resistance, conductivity, porosity, pH and many more technical parameters. They were probably down the open hole too long or had got the instrument stuck. In any case this time delay allowed the heavy drilling mud to fill with gas and oil and to turn to froth, which lowered its density and allowed this high pressure well to blow out.
    Some past history
    I prevented a blowout south of Sacramento as the logging geologist, by informing the company man to weight up the mud. The company man said my instruments were wrong and I did not know what I was talking about as he had been in this business for 28 years. I called the drilling engineer off site who wanted to know what the background gas and the gas shows were(those many layers, up to 30 in a single well that produce oil or gas) When I informed he told the company man to weight up the mud. I was removed from the well and sent to another well. The well began to flow of its own accord, a sign that you have lost control of the situation. The blowout preventers were actuated and a disaster averted. The lower 3500 feet of well was cemented closed as they could not control the tremendous pressure at 11500′. They used the upper 8000 feet in a producing well.
    My point here is that I know that there is a tremendous amount of oil and gas at greater depths and it is not brought onto line because the drilling companies have not been that successful at controlling high pressure gas and oil.
    Stop drilling oil wells into fault zones
    I left the oil business in early 2007 and am glad I did. I was only involved for ayear and ahalf and that was a lifetime for me. I would like to see every well in the world closed. Oil is a toxic carcinogenic compound and it is being spread around the world and killing the planet. Oil drilling should stop for everybody’s sake. Maybe man can then find a new cleaner energy source to fight and kill for. At least we save the environment. Who can save man from man?
    I would like to stop the insane drilling for oil and pumping of oil that is taking place off the coast of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Al these wells are being sunk into one of the world’s biggest fault zones that can clearly be seen in Google satellite photos. It is a 3000 mile fault zone crossing the Pacific Ocean and going on shore. You can see it by putting Santa Barbara into Google search, selecting satellite viewing mode in the top right hand corner and panning out until you see the size of this fault zone which is as long as the US is wide. It is 30 miles wide and because the bedrock is fractured here, the oil leaks out naturally at a slow rate and has done so from the time of the early Spanish Explores. The Native American used to use the tar to water proof their boats. The slow leak is good as it means the fault is full and sliding smoothly. When you remove the oil, you lock the tectonic plates and cause earthquakes (for those earthquakes at 7 miles and shallower.)
    Vandenberg Air Force Base
    I wonder if you have any contacts at Vandenberg Air Force Base. They could be warned to take a look at the geology and satellite maps for themselves, before the pumping and drilling for oil here triggers this gigantic fault zone and causes massive tsunamis and earthquakes. The fault is obvious to any school boy doing earth science today and is even on globes of the world sold since about 1990 showing bathymetry features under the water. My articles that I began writing in March 2010 have been published on line by The Santa Barbara News Press, The Ventura Star, Op-ed News and others.
    I am hoping to avert another ecological crisis on the west coast. As Vandenberg will also be hit by the natural disaster of the earthquake and tsunami, I was hoping that they might want to use their influence to stop the oil and gas drilling and pumping of oil and to shut the oil wells down permanently. I also wrote an article which began, “Dear Goldman Sachs and BP…” These are some of the GREY MEN making the huge profits. Win of lose, they are always on top. They keep a low profile, let the others get the flack and quietly pocket the profits. Huge profits require huge volatility and uncertainty. What better way to make a profit than stir up controversy?
    It seems an insane thing to do to deliberately drill into an active fault zone. My published articles can be found by putting in Chris Landau oil or earthquakes and my technical publications can be found on line and though the American Institute of Professional Geologists and The Association of Engineering and Environmental Geologists.
    Good luck on sales for your book. You should make it required reading matter for kids at school to make them think three times before going to be a pawn in somebody else’s money game(war) They need to question things early not to be manipulated. War, who benefits? Who makes a pile of loot?
    Sincerely
    Chris Landau
    530 751 9829
    chrislandau@yahoo.com
    April 30, 2010

  2. 2
    admin
    April 30th, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    Thanks for the reply Mr. Landau. Unfortunately, General Butler died quite some time ago. That should not invalidate your sentiments. I shall have a look at your geological publications.

    Regards

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