![]() Generally considered a liberal and a free-thinker, Maher argued that U.S. I was watching the Bill Maher Show this past weekend on HBO. ![]() Reblogged this on Bracing Views and commented: In the racket of war, the chief racketeers are easy to identify. They will continue because perpetual war is simply too profitable. Unless we heed Butler’s advice, debilitating wars will continue. ![]() (Congress hasn’t issued a formal declaration of war since 1941.) And today as a country we equate “home defense” with the world’s strongest military, configured for global reach, global power, boasting of “full-spectrum dominance.” We permit our youth to have no say in whether there should be a war. Tragically, since the end of World War II Butler’s sage advice has been completely ignored. “We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.” “We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.” At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel burst about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly … And even now the families of the wounded men and of the mentally broken and those who never were able to readjust themselves are still suffering and still paying.”Īnd Butler knew how best to put an end to the racket of war. They pay it in the same heart-break that he does. “Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill. Butler knew who really paid war’s high bills: “How many of the 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?” Plaque in Philly in Honor of Smedley Butler. Twice awarded the Medal of Honor, Major General Butler turned against military adventurism in the 1930s as he saw how his efforts and those of his men were exploited by elites to expand corporate wealth and power, even as they exempted themselves from the hardships and dangers of combat. And if you don’t believe me that forever war is forever profitable – for some, I recommend that you read War Is A Racket (1935), a classic polemic written by U.S. The business of wars and weapons sales is booming, with the United States leading the pack as the world’s foremost “merchant of death,” as Michael Klare notes in this article on the global arms trade for .īut why should we be surprised? War has always been a racket.
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