I was apolitical my whole life (I decided politics and gubmint was a circus, indeed, a freak show, likely because of the Nixon thing), but when 9/11 happened, I decided to try and work out what the hell the whole middle east thing was about, so began to study the bigger picture, as best I could. What I have learned I will not forget, and there are many people looking at this who are smarter than I am who act like they do not even know what Major General Smedley Butler said, much less remember it. But we know why they do this: it does not pay for them to be honest about what they see and know.
Gangsters of Capitalism is Smedley Butler’s masterpiece.. completely Damning of the American capitalist War Machine... as an X Marine it changed my perspective years ago about the US.. no more nationalistic BS illusions.. All National Governments are similar.. the Military does the bidding of the Elites financial interests... Eisenhower warned us about the Military Industrial Complex as well as the Tech Industrial Complex...
CHAPTER FOUR How To Smash This Racket! WELL, it's a racket, all right. A few profit -- and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war. The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation -- it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted -- to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get. Let the workers in these plants get the same wages -- all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers -- yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders -- everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches! Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds. Why shouldn't they? They aren't running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered. They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren't hungry. The soldiers are! Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war. That will smash the war racket -- that and nothing else. Maybe I am a little too optimistic. Capital still has some say. So capital won't permit the taking of the profit out of war until the people -- those who do the suffering and still pay the price -- make up their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and not that of the profiteers. Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared. A plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and dying. There wouldn't be very much sense in having a 76year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a uniform manufacturing plant -- all of whom see visions of tremendous profits in the event of war -- voting on whether the nation should go to war or not. They never would be called upon to shoulder arms -- to sleep in a trench and to be shot. Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war. There is ample precedent for restricting the voting to those affected. Many of our states have restrictions on those permitted to vote. In most, it is necessary to be able to read and write before you may vote. In some, you must own property. It would be a simple matter each year for the men coming of military age to register in their communities as they did in the draft during the World War and be examined physically. Those who could pass and who would therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of war would be eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite. They should be the ones to have the power to decide -- and not a Congress few of whose members are within the age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical condition to bear arms. Only those who must suffer should have the right to vote. A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only. At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up. The swivelchair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart. They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation." Oh no. First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people. Just like that. Then they begin to cry for a larger navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. For defense purposes only. Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific. For defense. Uh, huh. The Pacific is a great big ocean. We have a tremendous coastline on the Pacific. Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles? Oh, no. The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast. The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the united States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles. The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never would have been blown up. There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life. Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes. Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from the coastline. Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance...
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 comes to mind, drafted by a Rothschild in the midst of the Colonial Powers' "Great War" Reset. The American people had no desire to enter that war, but our Bait&Switch Globalist/Progressive/Elitist [aka, Marxist) President Woodrow Wilson had other ideas. FDR followed suit when the Great Depression didn't break the Americans back as hoped. Perpetual state of conflict ever since. As Jon warns, and Smedley documented, don't support WW3 on any level. The Jabs have done enough damage already.
I suspect that the war in Ukraine will escalate and Ukraine will be leveled and rebuilt, all with American tax dollars. Israelis will relocate to a newly reconstructed Ukraine., citing they are tired of rocks being thrown at them from the natives they displaced.
This is all new to me, the first time I've thought of war this way seriously. The news outlets I read will all suck everybody into it. I already know what side I'd take if I had to, but I think it's all so dirty and nasty, like, well I often compare big things to small things I've seen.
I've known some people who were so full of drama, crap and nonsense, that if you tried to talk with them it was an energy vampire, and if you tried to talk at them, they were way better at throwing fits. I had the luxury of just cutting them out of my life.
Now I will be seeing how war and corruption have a way of setting everything on fire, but a fire that doesn't purify anything, and catches us all off guard, and people that I think are my friends are going to turn out not to be. All because of unhealed wounds of a hundred years ago.
I was one to agree with Bush attacking Iraq but now I know I was a fool. Thank you for the dignity of truth.
I read Butler's racket book long ago so I'm going from memory. I believe the military bought bolts back then that fit nowhere else but into civilian equipment at Niagara Falls. I wonder if they got their money back. I would not be surprised if they also bought thousands of size 4 1/2 left foot boots although amputees back then were considerably smaller... It is necessary to be in a constant state of war (terrorism, you name it) to keep the gravy train alive. I'm betting the supply chains to support our involvement will be unimpeded.
Re: Who's really behind it? Is not a trivial question at this point. 'Cause some players don't even have names in the mainstream discourse. Straight political motives look stupid - what does Iran hope to gain? - but "metaphysical "motives are suspect. If the attack is actually part of "a KM plan to create chaos and destruction for their own sake in service to a demonic entity" (f'rinstance), but people are discussing it soley within the frames of (crooked) business-as-usual and (venal) political interests, it's still a waste of time.
I was apolitical my whole life (I decided politics and gubmint was a circus, indeed, a freak show, likely because of the Nixon thing), but when 9/11 happened, I decided to try and work out what the hell the whole middle east thing was about, so began to study the bigger picture, as best I could. What I have learned I will not forget, and there are many people looking at this who are smarter than I am who act like they do not even know what Major General Smedley Butler said, much less remember it. But we know why they do this: it does not pay for them to be honest about what they see and know.
You are right over target Jon!
Gangsters of Capitalism is Smedley Butler’s masterpiece.. completely Damning of the American capitalist War Machine... as an X Marine it changed my perspective years ago about the US.. no more nationalistic BS illusions.. All National Governments are similar.. the Military does the bidding of the Elites financial interests... Eisenhower warned us about the Military Industrial Complex as well as the Tech Industrial Complex...
Apparently we are Slow Learners
CHAPTER FOUR How To Smash This Racket! WELL, it's a racket, all right. A few profit -- and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war. The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation -- it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted -- to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get. Let the workers in these plants get the same wages -- all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers -- yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders -- everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches! Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds. Why shouldn't they? They aren't running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered. They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren't hungry. The soldiers are! Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war. That will smash the war racket -- that and nothing else. Maybe I am a little too optimistic. Capital still has some say. So capital won't permit the taking of the profit out of war until the people -- those who do the suffering and still pay the price -- make up their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and not that of the profiteers. Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared. A plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and dying. There wouldn't be very much sense in having a 76year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a uniform manufacturing plant -- all of whom see visions of tremendous profits in the event of war -- voting on whether the nation should go to war or not. They never would be called upon to shoulder arms -- to sleep in a trench and to be shot. Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war. There is ample precedent for restricting the voting to those affected. Many of our states have restrictions on those permitted to vote. In most, it is necessary to be able to read and write before you may vote. In some, you must own property. It would be a simple matter each year for the men coming of military age to register in their communities as they did in the draft during the World War and be examined physically. Those who could pass and who would therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of war would be eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite. They should be the ones to have the power to decide -- and not a Congress few of whose members are within the age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical condition to bear arms. Only those who must suffer should have the right to vote. A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only. At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up. The swivelchair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart. They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation." Oh no. First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people. Just like that. Then they begin to cry for a larger navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. For defense purposes only. Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific. For defense. Uh, huh. The Pacific is a great big ocean. We have a tremendous coastline on the Pacific. Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles? Oh, no. The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast. The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the united States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles. The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never would have been blown up. There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life. Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes. Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from the coastline. Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance...
Truth telling, Jon.
I saw the racket Smedley references first hand as a Marine officer in Vietnam, I Corps, 1966-67. Shithole.
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 comes to mind, drafted by a Rothschild in the midst of the Colonial Powers' "Great War" Reset. The American people had no desire to enter that war, but our Bait&Switch Globalist/Progressive/Elitist [aka, Marxist) President Woodrow Wilson had other ideas. FDR followed suit when the Great Depression didn't break the Americans back as hoped. Perpetual state of conflict ever since. As Jon warns, and Smedley documented, don't support WW3 on any level. The Jabs have done enough damage already.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration
I suspect that the war in Ukraine will escalate and Ukraine will be leveled and rebuilt, all with American tax dollars. Israelis will relocate to a newly reconstructed Ukraine., citing they are tired of rocks being thrown at them from the natives they displaced.
War is a racket. At the expense of the suckers, I mean what that marine said, masses.
It will be interesting to see how US involvement will be justified, and whether that involvement is overt or covert.
Because one way or the other, we will be involved.
Whether the populace wants to, or not.
This is spot on:
https://davidicke.com/2023/10/08/david-icke-whats-really-happening-in-israel/
Another bull's eye analysis!
This is all new to me, the first time I've thought of war this way seriously. The news outlets I read will all suck everybody into it. I already know what side I'd take if I had to, but I think it's all so dirty and nasty, like, well I often compare big things to small things I've seen.
I've known some people who were so full of drama, crap and nonsense, that if you tried to talk with them it was an energy vampire, and if you tried to talk at them, they were way better at throwing fits. I had the luxury of just cutting them out of my life.
Now I will be seeing how war and corruption have a way of setting everything on fire, but a fire that doesn't purify anything, and catches us all off guard, and people that I think are my friends are going to turn out not to be. All because of unhealed wounds of a hundred years ago.
I was one to agree with Bush attacking Iraq but now I know I was a fool. Thank you for the dignity of truth.
You go Jon, you've said a mouthful here brother...Semper Fi
I read Butler's racket book long ago so I'm going from memory. I believe the military bought bolts back then that fit nowhere else but into civilian equipment at Niagara Falls. I wonder if they got their money back. I would not be surprised if they also bought thousands of size 4 1/2 left foot boots although amputees back then were considerably smaller... It is necessary to be in a constant state of war (terrorism, you name it) to keep the gravy train alive. I'm betting the supply chains to support our involvement will be unimpeded.
Re: Who's really behind it? Is not a trivial question at this point. 'Cause some players don't even have names in the mainstream discourse. Straight political motives look stupid - what does Iran hope to gain? - but "metaphysical "motives are suspect. If the attack is actually part of "a KM plan to create chaos and destruction for their own sake in service to a demonic entity" (f'rinstance), but people are discussing it soley within the frames of (crooked) business-as-usual and (venal) political interests, it's still a waste of time.
What do they want to distract us from? Who will gain the most? Follow the money. This was allowed to happen.
What portion of the US economy is comprised of weapons manufacture? I believe it's greater than most people realize.