Sunday, January 10, 2010

War Is A Racket- Gen. Smedley Butler USMC 1935




"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 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."

BTW- Smedley, recipient of two Congressional Medals of Honor, was the most decorated officer of his time and was the person who reported to his then Commander-in-Chief Franklin Delano Roosevelt that there was a military coup being plotted against him.

2 comments:

Benjamin said...

Wow ... that is an AMAZING quote Stan ... wow

Stan B. said...

Yeah... And every bit as relevant today! Where's the moderen day equivalent with the same insight and cojones?