War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier

War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier | Smedley D. Butler | The Actual Costs of War and Who Benefits

books:

War is a Racket: T...

	War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier Smedley D. Butler Feral House, 2003 - 80 pages average customer review:based on 46 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Good Pamphlet size reading

This book is like "Common Sense." It brings to light things that you might not realize until someone else points them out. Afterward the trends that Maj.Gen. Butler brings up are self-evident from then on. It is almost a eureka or "Why didn't I think of that before?" moment. Butler gives few facts but lots of experience. In this day and age, self-evident truth is frowned on; everybody always wants you to quote someone else or show some government report. This book is refreshing in that everything is true if you just sit and think it out logically and apply some academic rigor to his ideas, along with some newer revelations about our history that Butler would not have known but predicted.

He is great at relating how war is engineered and urged on by corporate interests. They are the only benefactors. He is also prophetic in his seeing the coming war with Japan and Germany and how reasons to justify it would be manufactured/engineered and sold to the American people. I do not think that he, or anyone except the Nazis themselves, could envision the industrial murder machine that would be operated in Europe during the Holocaust. But he does see that we ultimately would go to war with Germany on the pretense of defending liberty but pragmatically to bail out the countries to whom we loaned large sums of money and equipment to that were losing the war. And so it happened...and Britain, France, and the Soviet Union remained to pay the debts they incurred with us and we made the Germans pay some of it, too. Japan he saw as a looming economic threat to our expansion in the Pacific and so we would either blockade or embargo Japan to weaken it and force them to attack us. He said all this a decade before it happened.

In the modern age of warfare which, to most historians began globally with the Boer War and for us and Butler the Spanish-American War, gives him some insight to the future with nuclear weapons. No, Butler did not predict the bomb but he said that in this modern age of warfare America would never go to war with a country where there was even a possibility that America might lose. That has been amended to: America will not go to war with another country with nuclear weapons. As Butler says, there is no way that any country could invade us. He does his own math and employs his logistical (amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics)expertise to show how impossible it is unless Canada or Mexico were involved, so the decision to go to war becomes easy for politicians. Since they do not have to risk themselves, their or their constituents captial, or our infrastructure then war is a very easy decision. Sounds eerily similar to today since the best evidence to me that Iraq had no WMDS is the fact that we invaded it. The bomb, of course, levels the playing field since the damage done is catastrophic and could consume our politicians or their corporate masters, it would ruin our country as well as the countries we retaliate against. He also talked about the emergence of superpowers and how one day they would fight wars by proxy (Cold War). The corporatism is also discussed about how those who profit from war will pull out or try and end it when all the profit potential has been realized regardless of the military outcome. A victory has to be sold so that Americans will be willing to go to war just as easily the next time. Vietnam of course broke that mold, the first Gulf war put it back together.

This book is a must read for anyone wanting to wave a flag and shout hooray for our side, or considering going down to the recruiting office on a wave of nationalistic fervor. Do you really know what we are fighting for or do you just think you know? I am a veteran and saw all of it, however I was the one who had to bear the burdens and also got to hear the double-speak going on in the homefront. I like Butler look back on my service and realize that what I was told I was fighting for and what I was actually fighting for were different. I have often been called unpatriotic/supporting terroists for not supporting/loving war, despite my service, that Butler sees as the effectively brain-washed masses who actually believe what government tells them.

Anyone who loves this country should read this book. This book has given me words to describe the feelings I have developed over the years about my government, its policies and their alienation from 95% of the citizenry. Even if most do not know it or refuse to see it. Butler just put on paper my own thoughts

Living in America now is like living with an alcoholic. You are sustained by memories of the good times and the promises of better tomorrows. However, the present is intolerable and can not go on forever. At some point you have to realize that letting go would be best. That is the strength of this book, it gives you the power to realize that the almost religious talk of liberty and justice in our country is just a mask which business and corparate interests wear to get us to do their bidding and that at some point you will have to let go of the delusions you want so much to believe.

for more information click here

The Actual Costs of War and Who Benefits

Gen. Smedly Butler (1880-1940) was the first American to win The Medal of Honor twice. He was a Marine Corps general, and he commanded his men very well. He knew the tragedy of war from personal experience,and he learned just how wars of "national defense" are actually planned enterprises by men in powerful political and corporate positions.

Gen. Butler wrote well, and he gave readers a clear picture of how corporate executive benefit from government expendatures of military goods. For example, prior to World War I, share of U.S. Steel sold for about $15 dollars a share. Once the war started and the Americans got involved, shares of U.S. Steel rose to approximately $630 a share. Butler cites other stock market gains that increased exponentially especially the Americans became an active belligerent when members of the U.S. Congress declared war on the Germans and their allies.

Gen. Butler does not stop there with his criticism. He rhetorically if the corporate executives offer their sons as canon fodder by having them enlist in the armed forces as infantrymen to face hostile gunfire and risk life and limb. To paraphrase George Orwell in his book titled HOMAGE TO CATALONIA, the loud mouthed journalists and "true patriots" at home do the cheering and offer "moral" support for war while young kids to the killing and the dying, and no "true patriot ever gets close to the front line except for the briefest of propaganda tours." Gen. Butler offers the suggestion that corporate executives and their sychophants be forbidden from raking in the profits from war production. This remark may have been made "tongue in cheek," but this might be a good idea. One must wonder how many interventionist wars government leaders would start if they and their "corporate sponsors" were to get the same pay as the men in the front lines. One may wonder how many interventionist wars political leaders, would start if their families and they themselves had to shoulder a gun and help with the fighting and face the risks that soldiers in the front lines have to face. The answer to these rhetorical questions may be none.

Mention of wars tragedies may be further illustrated in the essay titled, "The Horror of It." There are brief comments on the suffering, dying, and sadness that result from war. The photographs are not for those with weak stomachs. Yet, these photographs are grusome reminders of what does to naive, young brave men and sometimes women.

This reviewer is reminded of a political phrase that read, "War is great for the economy. Invest your sons." Given the changes since this reviewer saw this slogan, one could write that war is great for the economy. Invest your sons and daughters.

Gen. Butler was an honest man who clearly saw the connection between war and corporate America. His written expression is blunt and lucid. Anyone who has basic common sense can read this book and comprehend it. WAR IS A RACKET is written in a no-nonsense style and avoids the "academic bafflegab" offered by self serving political figures and media pundits who cannot write coherently anyway. This book is especially recommended for young people who should know that is happening to counter lies and distortions of what political figures and media sychophants claim what is "official truth." Another way expressing this view is to quote Lord Acton' dictum, Official truth is never actual truth."

for more information click here

Brilliant , Gem of a book

Author a reputed soldier who served in the US Marine Corps,in nutshell, talks about horrors of war.Having engaged in lot of close quarter combat General Butler came to despise war.

Soldiers of US Marine Corps have waged wars thousands of miles from country's shores.Goverment justified this move by claiming security considerations dictated it.Is that so ,Butler asks?
Author says America shielded by two mighty oceans[except for a brief period of time]is immune from overseas invasion.Twice in the previous century America embroiled herself in European wars.
Government resorting to lies, deceit, disinformation made people think Germany posed a formidable threat to nation's safety.

Fact goes that in both world wars Germany failed to subjugate Britain ,a country lying at its very door step.How can Germans
storm their way across several thousand miles of ocean when they could not even effect a simple channel crossing.So official reasoning sounds ridiculous.

American people have been repeatedly taken for a ride by their Government.Wars have benefitted only a few people :corporate barons.It stimulate demand for armaments generating huge profits to these death merchants,author says.

Author has outlined measures to curb Government from engaging in
foreign wars.Most important statement he makes''to take profit motive out of war.This will discourage politicians ,corporates,militarists from fuelling wars.FurtherUS
Navy must stop the practice of sending its fleet to patrol distant shores,a very provocative move.Remember Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 which eventuated in America's costly ,bloody war in Indo China.

Let me caution readers: Do not dub this book as a treatise on pacifism.Author says wars must be fought only for genuine causes.All other wars are nothing but a racket.

for more information click here

An Interesting Critique of the Military Industrial Complex that Falls Short

In this short book, one of America's most decorated generals presents a concise anti-war argument based largely on the example of US involvement in World War I.

Butler outlines the profits involved in war, specifically for companies involved in supplying the US war machine. This is achieved by demonstrating the pre-war and wartime yearly profits of leading producers of war material. Butler shows how the single figure profit margins of peace time are transformed into the three and four figure profit margins of war time. The strength in Butler's argument is the manner in which he names names, and cites specific examples of extreme wartime profiteering. Thousands of new millionaires and billionaires are made whilst thousand of soldiers die on the fronts. Butler is disgusted by this and goes on to show who really pays for these profits.

Butler argues that everything from war bonds to the manner in which US soldiers were paid ultimately generated money that went into the pockets of America's wartime millionaires. The soldiers paid with their lives and paid with their pay packets (most of a soldiers $30 a month pay packet was recovered by the state), their families were exploited through direct taxation and worthless war bonds.

Butler correctly identifies the war machine as a racket that benefits business, however he fails to draw strong connections between the war machine and the state. He speaks of back room decision making and secrecy obscuring the real financial aims of the businessmen who clamour for a "war for democracy" yet offers little criticism of the American state who raised the taxes and war bonds, sent the troops to die and overpaid corporate interests in the billions of US dollars.

Butler comes close to a critique of the state on two occasions. He describes the state as beholden to corporate interests in entering the war:

"Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in 1916 (...) on the implied promise that he would `keep us out of war' (...) five months later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany (...). Then what caused our government to change its mind so suddenly? Money."

Butler argues that the US entered the war because if the allies lost they would never be able to repay onerous war debts to the US.

Butlers second critique of the state is implied. He states that the only way to stop war is to take the profit out of it, again arguing that the US is beholden to corporate interests who profit from war.

Butler offers an extremely flawed solution to the racket of warfare. His three step program is to outlaw sending the army overseas, only enter a war after a plebiscite of those who are likely to be conscripted and only ever pay those involved in war production the same as the soldiers dieing in the trenches.

Butler criticizes business but fails to make the obvious attacks on the state, which is beholden to business. His plan is formulated in apparent denial of the reality that this program will never be practical unless the state can be made to serve the interests of the people, and not the interests of business.

The fact is that despite his criticisms, Butler is extremely loyal to the state and its concept of nation. He is patriotic. That is the weakness of his book.

I recommend this book as an interesting and easy to read criticism of the business racketeering engaged in during war, but beware being sucked in by the simplistic solution that Butler offers, in apparent denial of realities about the state.

for more information click here

Not what I had hoped

Often, when I read about a new subject, I like to be welcomed by a balanced, thoughtful, intelligent point of view, one that I find really convincing. This was not that point of view. He seems very opinionated, but light on the factual evidence. I had hoped to hear detailed accounts of the corporations involved in his global exploits. He just mentions them however, and then goes off on his rant including such outlandish suggestions as having our ships stay within 50 (or 100, I forget) miles of shore. While I suppose it is interesting to note that the "military-industrial complex" was alive and well back in the day, this is mostly just a novelty piece that offers little that can be of relevance in today's world. Overall, worth reading, but nothing to write home about. If Janine Garofalo thinks of this book as a valuable and scathing expose about war and money, She must not need much evidence to form the basis of a belief.

for more information click here