War Is A Racket Left or Right, profits make power.

[banjosforpeace 0]

Whatever your political stripe, you may find the short book "War Is A Racket" an interesting read. It was written by distinguished service medal, and two-time congressional medal of honor recipient Major General Smedley Butler (USMC) in 1935. All five chapters can be read here:

 

War Is A Racket

 

Butler was no right-wing nut or looney lefty. He was a soldier who followed orders and led his men into battle. He was a patriot for his service and a patriot for telling about his service.

 

FYI - Only one of the 535 members of the Senate and House has a son or daughter in the military right now. Only one administration cabinet official had ever seen combat (Tom Ridge) and one other had ever served in the US military (Rumsfeld), though it was as a flight instructor. Not a single anchor/pundit on FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN or any of the networks has ever served in the military or has immediate family serving now. Only a very small handful of the former military members paid as war analysts for the news networks have not taken money as lobbyists for defense contractors.

 

I am the son of a Vietnam combat veteran.

[Analyst 0]

I was interested in the comment "The first World war cost "$400 to every American man, woman, and child."Any figure (auditable) for WW2, Vietman, Korean, Iraq and Terror ?Regards

[webguide 0]

Whatever your political stripe, you may find the short book "War Is A Racket" an interesting read. It was written by distinguished service medal, and two-time congressional medal of honor recipient Major General Smedley Butler (USMC) in 1935. All five chapters can be read here:

 

War Is A Racket

 

Butler was no right-wing nut or looney lefty. He was a soldier who followed orders and led his men into battle. He was a patriot for his service and a patriot for telling about his service.

 

FYI - Only one of the 535 members of the Senate and House has a son or daughter in the military right now. Only one administration cabinet official had ever seen combat (Tom Ridge) and one other had ever served in the US military (Rumsfeld), though it was as a flight instructor. Not a single anchor/pundit on FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN or any of the networks has ever served in the military or has immediate family serving now. Only a very small handful of the former military members paid as war analysts for the news networks have not taken money as lobbyists for defense contractors.

 

I am the son of a Vietnam combat veteran.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think that money is the only thing that encourages people like george bush to go to war, ego is a big part of it.

[adamsgi 0]

One problem I have is that so many politicians believe that war can bring about peace. I think that everyone can see that if that was the case, the 1st world war would have been the end of it. Unfortunately, fighting a war for peace, is like having sex for virginity - completely counteractive. War (and violence in general) just breads more war and violence.An overly simplified example: Take the Middle East situation. Saddam Hussein was scared of the nuclear power that his western enemies had and so tried to get some of his own. This fear of violence resulted in fear in the west, that Saddam might use wmd's if he could get his hands on any. We eventually went to war with him, and his country. This in turn created a lot of bad feeling in the Middle east, which may have resulted in the al-qaeda Terrorist attacks in the US, Spain, and Indonesia. Because of these attacks, we fought back and invaded their countries, determined to impose a new regime, completely unsuitable for that area of the world. Now hate us, and are resulting to suicide bombing to get their way. We in turn are hunting the suicide bombers, but annoy the local innocent citzens in the process, creating enough bad feeling to foster even more suicide bombers. And so the saga goes on in an ever perpetuating circle.The key thing is for one side to stop. To bring it to something closer to home (I'm in the UK), Northern Ireland has been a bone of contention for many years. If one side had just stopped the violence, the other side would have lost favour if they had continued the violence. *BLEEP* for tat fighting is no answer, and in the end, everyone really forgets what they are fighting for. All they know is that it has always been that way.However, money and power are always attractive things. Unfortunately, when it comes to war, they never last for long.

[iGuest 3]

War is more than just a racket. It is an industry. Look at the military industrial complex to see who is really running our country. Bush is only playing to the audience that is paying. The project for a new american century is pulling all the strings. Bush appoints its members (Rumsfeld, Cheney, & Wolfowitz to name a few) to high positions, then the rest of his appointees are just large scale campaign contributors (as in FEMA's director who is now gone, but a buch of his appointees with few skills remain at FEMA). Bush is not the only one playing this game. He just plays it more overtly & to a larger scale than ever before.