"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."
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and 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 benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might 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."
- U.S. Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler
The above quotes are pretty shocking to people who believe that America really is this righteous force in the world. We are just as shitty as the Russians and all the other imperialist powers that have come and gone over human history. The big difference these days is that we generally try to justify wars, either through blatant lies (Iraq) or by attacking strawmen in places we have a vested interest in (the Taliban in Afghanistan).
Every human war in history has been fought because someone sought to get rich from it. Direct taxation, "tribute", loot and plunder, trade agreements, these are all multi-billion dollar affairs. We are in Afghanistan because we've been fucking around there since 1979, and 9/11 finally provided an excuse to invade. UNOCAL and other major oil companies have been working for 20 years to set up American oil pipelines connected Tajikstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India - we're there for big business. And people are gullible and stupid enough to sign up and die so fat white guys in Washington can get rich.
Topic: war (Read 3250 times)