I found that Butler's sentiment in this book is not exactly "anti-war" in the sense that he disagrees with war. He does not. Clearly there are circumstances in which he believes war is legitimate. The only sense in which he is "anti-war" is if you are talking about unnecessary wars that America fights only to further enrich the powerful and wealthy, or to use a contemporary euphemism, "protect the American way of life."

The reviewer who stated that this book is surprisingly anti-semitic needs to provide specific examples, as there are no identifiable anti-semitic statements made by the Butler. Only if you view as anti-semitic Butler's desire to do nothing about Hitler since he was not, at that time, a threat to the United States can you possibly come to the conclusion that this book contains those sentiments.

This book is so brief that Mr. Steele practically reprints it in his review (see the first review on this page). He hits the highlights that I wanted to mention, but the lesson we all need to learn here is that...WAR IS A RACKET! Here's why: War benefits the elites and their agenda for expanded markets; the masses are NEVER told the REAL reason for the war (we only hear the lies-not endemic to the Iraq War, but to ALL US wars); the masses PAY for the war in taxes and lives. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their lives, or had their lives ruined by war, over the years and NOT ONE benefit to them can be named! If you read Tocqueville and use your common sense you will realize that there is NEVER a reason (valid) for the US to go to war. IT'S ALL A RACKET, as explained in this pamphlet by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, a true American Patriot.

This is an interesting book that was initially written in 1936 by a Marine know as "The Fighting Quaker". It's still relevant today.
I learned of this through a Peace and Justice seminar given by a local college. The speakers were two IRAQ veterans who were essentially anti-war protesters. I was impressed with their passion.

4 Stars not 5 because of Intro (not written by Butler). Butler reveals an impassioned hatred of war because he is a human being with a conscience. It is so sad how indifferently governments and nations treat their soldiers and how ignorant and willing people are to rationalize inflicted death.

War is a Racket is one of the greatest anti-war book ever penned. As a Marine veteran of Iraqi Freedom it is easy to disregard this a commi-b.s.propaganda , but looking further into what is "the war to make the world safe for democracy" ( not the infinite war on terror, but The Great War, WW1) We can see the true propaganda of business corrupting our sovereignty. The first casualties of war are common sense and open discussion. It is almost impossible for America to be truly attacked; if our forces were at home it would be virtually impossible to sustain any large force , even if it were, the Unorganized militia would crush them, providing we have not been disarmed by all the gun-grabbing cowards like Socialist Billy Bob Clinton and Mr. Fascist Patriot Act Bush. Wake up, learn from one of our most decorated warriors and open your mind to something other than "the terrorist are gonna get us if we don't go fight them in the sandbox". Gimme a break.

Even today this book is very informational. What was written then is still being done today.

In this classic pamphlet the authentic war hero, Gen. Butler, brings doubt on the pretty face so often given to war. It is Gen. Butler's wakeup to reality that the causes of war are far more complex than the slogans and noble phrases that precede it. In order to truly understand the cause of wars we must follow the money. Often, those who speak the General's message are branded as less than patriots; the most decorated soldier of his time, Gen. Butler lays that accusation to rest for all time.

Gen. Butler's work was prophetic, anticipating the military-industrial complex long before President Eisenhower's famous speech coining that phrase. It is as profitable for us today to be aware of those forces on society as it was then.

Though somewhat lacking in recent details, Gen. Butler still manages to give us pause to ponder the connections between money and war. Business interests have indeed fueled many wars and ignoring those interests is ignoring reality. A great work that can help us avoid the hysteria so prevalent at war's beginnings and perhaps save us from the same old mistakes. Every true patriot will want to be familiar with this short but convincing little classic.

General Smedley Butler is someone that Americans should pay attention to. He was a highly decorated Marine Corps general who understood the system he was apart of, and wasn't afraid to expose it in the end. He realized that both he and his men were being exploited by big-business interests who have more say in government policy than they're entitled to. The horrible truth of it all is that war is a business; and that there are many American bankers and industrialists who have no scruple about causing the deaths of other people as long as they can make money. The result is that in America there is a veritable syndicate of bankers and industrialists who have a vested interest in seeing the United States mired in one frivolous war after another.

There was another brave military man out there who also warned about this problem. I refer to the former President and retired WWII General Dwight Eisenhower. In one his last speeches as President he warned the American people about the so-called "Military Industrial Complex." He warned America about a politically powerful corporate culture which had a vested interest in seeing America go to war, as opposed to other possible solutions which might be in the better interest of the United States and the people.

I know there are many people out there who believe that there are no "conspiracies" in America. Yet this is exactly what the retired generals Butler and Eisenhower warned us about. If our own leaders in big business and government are willing to connive to start wars and get thousands of people killed, then what else are they capable of?

I believe that Smedley Butler and Dwight Eisenhower were, like all of our serving men and women, honorable citizens who stood up in an emergency situation and followed orders. They obeyed our leaders in good patriotic faith. This is the sacrifice that all of our men and women make from the beginning when they are sent off to war, and to be shot and blown to pieces. They accept in good faith that their leaders are telling the truth, and that their sacrifices are necessary for the survival of our society. But once the fighting and the horror has come and gone - the real questions begin. Obviously Smedley Butler and Dwight Eisenhower were two veterans among many who realized that they weren't being told the whole truth, and that the system itself is corrupt.

The final question is whether the American people have the moral fortitude and courage to heed these warnings? Or will they sit idly as criminals lead this country down the road to bankruptcy, with half the world looking for revenge?

I believe that Smedley Butler's book addresses some vitally important issues - issues that could one day get you, or some one else in your family killed. Ignore this book at your own peril.

Now I know that there are some who would point to WWII as a refutation of Butler's thesis. But this position is the result of a most shallow consideration of the issues. Yes, we had to go to war to stop Hitler and the Japaneses - and to Roosevelt's credit he spent less money on Germany and Japan than Bush has spent in Iraq (so far). But the question most people never ask is "What happened to the Versaille Treaty?" When Hitler came to power in 1933 Germany was subject to this treaty, and Germany's economy was under the control of a syndicate of American banks which financed Germany's war reparations payments. Furthermore, under the Versaille Treaty Germany had no army, navy or airforce. In 1933 Hitler was in a very weak position and he could have easily been toppled.

Hitler never lied about his objectives. He could have been easily toppled. But instead, the US and British governments agreed to stop enforcing the Versaille Treaty, and they allowed Hitler to re-arm Germany. Many American companies like Ford, General Motors and ITT helped to rebuild Germany's military. (Some of these companies have even been sued by Holocaust survivors.) JP Morgan helped re-organize Germany's diverse chemical industry into the notorious IG Farben conglomerate, which in turn was the chief financial backer of the Nazi regime. Some readers may also be aware of the role W's grand father, Prescott Bush, in the financing of Germany's steel industry, which provided the steel for all those new Panzer tanks, and for the battleships Bismark and the Graf Spee.

Yes, once we look into the real issues, it becomes more than obvious that the good General Butler was in fact right after all.

Yes, we needed to fight WWII, but then again we had the leaders in place here at home who made damn sure that there was an enemy there to fight with. Most disgusting is that some of the American institutions who profited from the rebuilding of Germany's military also profited from the US war against Germany.

It would have been very intersting to see Smedley Butler's reaction to all of this, but he died in 1940. Right up to his death Butler was opposed to any US involvement in the British war with Germany. He is open to criticism because of this; but he certainly cannot be blamed for smelling a rat.

Gen.Bulter and what he stated about the cooperations has not change.Update, no draft,let illegal immigrants take america.Gen.Bulter came through the ranks.He was an amazing Marine.A real Hero.

Anyone who knows the truth knows the government has dupe the people.Were these ventures for the secuity of the US.For an example what has gone on in central america.Oliver North,contra.Did President Reagan tell the truth.Who benefits from these actions.

Gen.Bulters states that banks and industry were involved,and others,all committers of treason,but not prosecuted.The go betweem dies,was it a natural death.Does this sound fimiliar.As usual they tried to degrade Gen.Bulter,did this happen lately with another canidate G.Is there any hope,they think not.

Who is fighting the wars,no draft,who enjoys the contracts,and the pleasures of conquest.Why do forty percent support these actions.Would they if they had to fight, and come forward to defend their interest.Those who are educated,are they blind, or what.Do they think this will continue,or they will not be the ones that get caught.Did Gen.Butler waste is time.

Gen.Butler failed as all is the same,but worst,soon we may have a king.What is China and Russia doing.What did Marx say about rope.Nature always wins.Out of the weak come the strong.You can win battles, and lose the war.China was weak, now it is strong,General Butler was in China.What does Westpoint say about China and Russia.Did not people want to sell an oil company to China,what else.

Can the american people save America.Gen.Butler thought so.Where are all our educated people.Democracy is at risk Liberty and justice for all citizens period.

Gen.Bulter loved America,but what is happening,is spin the end game.

The Romans are dead.Keep Gen.Butler in your thoughts daily,and move forward with is effort, Save America,The New World order has almost won.E.U.,Holand,Thank them,why was CAFTA approved.

In very terse language, General Smedley Butler tells it like it is about war in this short book. His ideas of how war is so economically profitable to some is valid in our own times as well. He calls it no less than 'blood profit', money accumulated by big business by promoting death and destruction.

The General found all this out by direct experience. After a career in the Marines that was spent fighting in numerous wars, the truth that he has discovered, that 'War Is A Racket', should be written in stone for all, especially our leaders, to see.

A classic in the literature about war that should be more widely known.

Brigadier General Smedley Darlington Butler is not a very familiar name when it comes to military lore in America. Butler was a two-time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. As a solider he oversaw American campaigns in China, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti. After his retirement from military service he brought down a planned corporate coup that threatened to seize control of the White House. He supported World War I Bonus Marchers who rallied in DC looking for their promised "War Bonus." He treated all his men fairly and honestly and was respected for it. Most importantly, he realized that in his role as a military leader he was a "high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short...a racketeer for Capitalism." This book was his effort to expose everything that he knew about the inner workings of the American War Machine.

The first sentences of Butler's book, written in 1935 and mainly referring to World War I remain true today, "War is a racket. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious." Butler then rips into war profiteers who never shouldered a rifle yet made millions in blood money. Throughout his writing Butler posits that the single focus of war is to make money for the few by trading in the blood of the many. To know that in 2004 these words accurately and eerily describe the majority of the men and women now in control of the United States of America is shameful and disgraceful.

In Chapter Two "Who Makes the Profits" Butler analyzes who made money during the Wars he was involved with. He analyzes how they made their money and how much they made. All one has to do is change some of the industries, corporate names, increase the profits exponentially and you will have a blueprint for the wars of today launched by the US. Again, this shows that when it comes to war, the technology may change through the years, but the end result is always the same, many die and a few make more money.

Interestingly, Butler points out that it was not always big business that made money from war, up until the Spanish American War soldiers also made a profit above and beyond their military salary. Soldiers were paid enlistment bonuses, and they were paid when enemies were captured. The government then discovered they could substitute medals and ribbons for dollars and did so. Thanks to that logic, borrowed from Napoleon, soldiers pay the bill of war with their lives, limbs, minds and souls and are rewarded with worthless tin and ribbon.

Butler offers simple solutions to end the racket of war. First, take the profit out of war. Pay everyone that works in the war industry the same wage that a solider would make in the trenches risking his life. This is a simple and effective plan. Pay the CEO of United States Steel (or Halliburton today) the same as the grunt in the trenches and see how many wars are launched. Another solution; vote on the war. However, the vote would be restricted to those who will be called upon to fight and serve, not those in Congress or the President. Butler's final suggestion, limit the military to homeland defense only; secure these shores, do not patrol the shores and lands of others that are not legitamely threatening us. In other words promote isolationism. As Butler states, "there are only two reasons why you should ever be asked to give your youngsters. One is defense of our homes. The other is the defense of our Bill of Rights and particularly the right to worship God as we see fit." There is no mention about sacrificing the young in search of phantom weapons on foreign shores or to payback on a threat to your Daddy.

Butler shows very clearly that isolationism is the best defense for our country and also the least profitable for big business. In his essay "common Sense Neutrality," Butler details what it would take to attack the shores of the US with success. If anyone thinks that a prolonged ground attack of the US is feasible today they should read the list of items an attack of this type would require. Simply put, it ain't gonna happen.

If the current leadership of this country had read this book and taken Butler's suggestion of a Peace Amendment into account we may not have had to endure the attacks of 9/11. The focus on this Amendment, which could easily be adopted, is a true defense of our borders that not even a rat could sneak through.

The final section of the book is a collection of war atrocity photos from the classic book "The Horror of It" that any war supporter should be forced to view in the company of those that have lost a loved one for "democracies sake."

Make no mistake, Butler was not the Michael Moore of his time; Butler did not point out problems with a smarmy smile on his face while raking in millions of dollars. Butler saw problems with his country; he was critical of issues that affected the working class and he offered solutions to these problems. There is no cuteness in his words, they are hard, honest and thought provoking. And through it all he loved his country; however he had no love for those that ran it and manipulated the masses for their profit.

"This was the war to make the world safe for Democracy" was the cry the public heard in Butler's day, just as we hear today. Butler did not believe that statement and said, "no one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason" for war. Today, Butler would be called un-American due to his critical words. In reality he was the ultimate patriot, never forgetting that the US was to be run by the people, not by big business. Sadly, 70 years after Butler wrote these essays things remain the same.

This is a rare book that stands the test of time and could help us today. If we heed Butler's words and put his ideas in place perhaps we can avoid further useless war.

Tub-thumping denunciation of war as the private realm of money-grubbing profiteers from one who knows. No room here for nuance as Marine General Smedley Butler lays it on the line big time. Parallels with Iraq war, Halliburton, and other contract-hungry vultures, are too strong to ignore. Too bad this kind of anti-empire rhetoric is no longer heard from a high command looking for executive employment at retirement. Clearly, we're all much the worse for its absence. Photos are unforgettable and add graphic reminder to extremely slender text. Unfortunately, Adam Parfrey's introduction remains sketchy and does little more than whet the appetite -- a stronger historical context would have helped. Smedley Butler's good name and blunt talk need to be revived now more than ever. There's something wonderfully early American about his honesty, directness, and anti-militarism, something that has been lost to an electronic age of empire building, media manipulation and moral deceit. More than a mere general, his ideals remain those of a true patriot.

"War is a racket. It has always been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives...At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other millionaires falisifed their income tax returns no one knows... The average earnings of the du Ponts [chemical/gun powder producers at the time] for the period 1910 to 1914 was six million dollars a year...[from]1914 to 1918...fifty-eight million dollars of profit we find...an increase of 950 percent..."

Brigadier General Smedley R. Butler
WAR IS A RACKET
From Chapters One and Two

"The complex saga behind [a fascist military] coup attempt [in America in the 1930's], and the devious manner in which Butler was solicited to join the attempt to intimidate President Roosevelt into functional inactivity, was strikingly described by Archer in THE PLOT TO STEAL THE WHITE HOUSE (Hawthorn Books, 1973)...The most revealing details of the McCormack/Dickstein [Congressional] Committee report were suppressed in its original release. Though the report confirmed Smedley Butler's revelation of outrageous corporate plots, it failed to detail the names of prominent corporate entities, whose mention would have embarrassed the politicians they supported and the `patriotic' groups they helped form..."

Adam Parfey

WAR IS A RACKET
From the Introduction

"...Even so, Mr. President Elect, there is an off chance that you might actually make some difference if you start now to rein in the warlords. Reduce military spending, which will make you popular because you can then legitimately reduce our taxes instead of doing what you have been financed to do, freeing corporate America of its small tax burden."

Gore Vidal
PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE

The maverick Brigadier General Smedley Butler is one of the ironic--and iconic--true patriots of our times.

Born in the wake of the slow death of the 18/19th century Plantation system, the advent of 19/20th century Industrial society, the birth of the American colonial system in 1898 and the horrors of World War One, the pre-World War Two period, with its rampant racism and anti-Semitism serving the dictates of a capitalist spirit again gone mad, serves to explain the moral vacuum existing in our politics today. The culture of the 20's and 30's reveals the seedy underbelly of virulent capitalism and its siamese twin relationship with fascism as it has always existed in America, with varying degrees of influence and power. During this period today's adolescent fascist sentiments masquerading as Conservatism were incubated, hatched and allowed to fester like an open wound, until the cancer of empire/police state overtook the body politic of a still embryonic American democracy in 1947.

General Butler revealed an actual multi-level fascist plot within Wall Street and the military to essentially destroy democracy in the thirties. Fascism's influence in politics and the economy is one of the principal reasons, it is revealed, why there was a shift from fighting the remnants of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo to an arms race with Stalin and communism after WWII. Indeed, the OSS (which later became the CIA) use of Nazi and Japanese mad scientists and their secret experimentation on Jews and American prisoners of war, *via secretly arranging their US citizenship after World War Two,* to fight an already debilitated communism getting in the way of American imperialism, is a dark side of American history that could only be told [let alone believed] in the context of this basic paradigm of American culture. Too many people, General Butler clearly knows, get rich in every war for it not to be the principal motivation for its existence.

The Isolationist idealism of his seventy-odd page pamphlet WAR IS A RACKET, which could come across as childishly naive at times, delusionally socialist at others, must be read with an understanding of this cultural context. The Isolationist argument in American history has never been truly respected in our modern imperialist times. Brigadier General Smedley Butler, however, had the courage to go against much of what was ingrained in him as a career military man in the Marines and courageously share the only logical reasons for the architecture of modern war and the horrors of modern life. The truths he reveals form the actual basis of the early 20th century Isolationist argument-and reawaken us to its profound moral validity for our times.

The lessons this book has for our times, however, only begins there. The forces that General Butler fought against in 1934 are the same ones President Eisenhower referred to regarding the "Industrial Military Complex" in 1961. They are also the same forces who saw to Reagan's election in 1980 (via preventing the smooth transfer of American hostages out of Iran in the Carter years for political clout) and urged on his support of fascist regimes like South Africa, Iraq and Guatemala around the world; all while undermining actual democracies like Nicaragua via arms sales to terrorists through a CIA financed by illegal drug sales in America (hence the advent of the Crack era; see DARK ALLIANCE by Gary Webb). "Conservative" presidents on both sides of the political fence, via secretly financed wars for "democracy" and "freedom" against "terrorism," have co-opted an American language of democracy, peace and prosperity for the forces of a globalized economic fascism rooted in our country; all to continue the halcyon days of slavery and empire in a new form. And war, as Adam Parfey says masterfully in his postscript (making the many typos in this book forgivable), is the heart of the modern economics upon which this is built.

Indeed, General Butler's revelations on his road to Damascus that is WAR IS A RACKET inevitably calls into question the actual humanity of the Western world, and our entire way of life.

This is a short, painful, passionate and important book.

"War is a Racket" is marine general, Smedley Butler's classic treatise on why wars are conducted, who profits from them, and who pays the price. Few people are as qualified as General Butler to advance the argument encapsulated in his book's sensational title. When "War is a Racket" was first published in 1935, Butler was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He had lead several successful military operations in the Caribbean and in Central America, as well as in Europe during the First World War. Despite his success and his heroic status, however, Butler came away from these experiences with a deeply troubled view of both the purpose and the results of warfare.

Butler's central thesis is that regardless of the popular rhetoric that often accompanies warfare, it is waged almost exclusively for profit. He advances this argument in three decisive examples.

EXAMPLE 1: CORPORATE MILITARY PROFITS RESULTING FORM WAR
In an early version of "follow the money", Butler provides pre- and post-World War I data on some of America's leading corporations to demonstrate the surge in profits that they experienced from the war, often totaling several hundred percent. While some companies, such as Dupont, arguably produced goods that contributed directly to America's military victory in 1918, others such as saddle manufacturers did not. Even when these companies failed to contribute directly to the war effort, they still managed to lobby the government to retrain or expand their contracts. Its as though powerful, well connected oil services company today were to contract with the government to supply oil to the military during a foreign campaign and then deliberately overcharge it.

EXAMPLE 2: INVESTING IN OTHER NATIONS' WARS
Butler argues that the United States practically doomed itself to entering the First World War the moment it began lending money and material to the allies. Once the allies were faced with certain defeat, argues Butler, they approached American government and business officials and flatly told them that unless they were victorious they would not be able to repay their staggering debt. In the event that Germany and the axis powers won the war, they would have no motivation to assume and repay the allied debt to the United States. America entered the First World War, according to Butler, in order to guarantee the repayment of its massive military loans to the allies. No allied victory meant no repayment, which meant no profit. Thousands of American soldiers were killed or maimed, argues Butler, to protect corporate profits.

EXAMPLE 3: THE MILITARY AS A COROPORATE THUG
Based on his own service experience in Central America and the Caribbean Butler argues that most American military interventions in small countries were done in order to "clear the way" for American corporations to set up shop and commence pillaging. It would be as if the United States were to occupy an oil-rich nation and then start doling out "rebuilding" contracts to some of its largest and best-connected corporations.

WHO PAYS FOR WAR
Having focused on who profits from war, Butler then examines who pays the price. The answer, unsurprisingly enough is the average taxpayer and the young people who are either slaughtered in wartime or who return home physically and psychologically damaged. Sadly, Butler points out, once these young people are no longer useful they are ignored by their own government and are left to suffer without assistance. It's as though a president were to employ a lot of rhetoric about supporting our troops while using them to occupy and oil-rich nation, but were to secretly slash their hazardous duty pay and veterans benefits.

THE SOLUTION: END WAR PROFITEERING
Butler's solution to preventing the carnage and social injustices of war is to eliminate business leaders' ability to make a profit from war or to avoid serving in it themselves. He also argues that those who put their lives at risk should have a say in whether or not to wage war. This may sound like a lot of idealistic, socialist nonsense, but thing about it. Would the United States have invaded an oil-rich nation if its unelected president had been forced to serve in the front lines as part of the process? Would business interests have supported the war if they never stood to profit from it? Probably not.

"War is a Racket" also contains other interesting factoids including General Butler's successful prevention of a right-wing coup against President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Unfortunately, no one of General Butler's caliber was able to prevent a similar coup from taking place in 2000.

General Butler also makes a persuasive case for the United States to remain isolationist and to avoid involving itself in the coming European war (This book was published shortly before World War II.). Using his considerable grasp of military logistics, Butler counters many of the prevailing arguments of his day that Hitler posed a direct military threat to the United States. Unfortunately, no one of General Butler's caliber was available to counter a similar argument that right wing policy makers advanced about a tiny oil-rich nation in the Middle East posing a direct military threat to the United States.

To anyone who doubts the veracity or efficacy of this book, I have a humble but useful suggestion. Ask yourself who makes money off of war. Then ask yourself if they ever make the physical, mental, or fiscal sacrifices for war. Finally ask yourself who ultimately makes the sacrifices and pays the prices. Most people who favor war either profit from it, or are seduced by the idea of it. General Butler's book is a concise, and brilliantly argued treatise on the reality of war. Of course most people prefer a beautiful idea to harsh reality, and that is why propagandists and politicians are so successful.

War is hell. Reprinted by Feral House Press, _War is a Racket_ is an antiwar rant by "America's Most Decorated Soldier", Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler. In fact, this brief book, includes several essays, including an introductory piece by Adam Parfrey, _War is a Racket_, two essays dealing with the First and Second World Wars and arguing for isolationism, and a series of gruesome photos of war time tragedies from the antiwar book _The Horror of It_. _War is a Racket_ offers some interesting insights into the individuals and businesses behind warfare, who make profits off the bodies of dead soldiers. However, at times the book veers off into near communistic insanity in its hatred for corporate capitalism and its insistence that all men should earn the same wage regardless of profession during wartime. In fact, wars have often been provoked with little or no justification, often at the whims of bankers and transnational elites, and wars are often poorly conducted so as not to serve the best interests of America and the American soldier. However, war itself is a necessary fact of life in the world of nations. The idea that war can be totally eliminated through some international means of collaboration is not only absurd, but all the more likely to foster the world's biggest totalitarian system yet devised. In fact, to suggest that war be eliminated is tantamount to suggesting that one tolerate the intolerable. However, this is not really General Butler's position. Instead, Butler argues that war itself cannot be eliminated but that the United States should not become entangled in events which are not of its concern and thus try to maintain neutrality at all costs. For instance, if the United States were to be invaded by foreign occupiers, then of course war would become necessary. Also, if a given nation poses a direct threat to the well being of the citizens of the U.S., then war is inevitable provided that that nation cannot be quelled through diplomacy. However, to fight a war for purely economic interests of profit, thereby risking the lives of countless young men merely to increase the profits of corporate interests, is entirely immoral. The real question then becomes how can one know when the interests of America are really being put first. In recent times, many have started to question the tactics of President George W. Bush's "War on Terror" initiative and invasion of Iraq, post-9/11, on precisely the same grounds that individuals like Smedley had questioned the First and Second World Wars. Whether America's true interests are being put first remains to be seen. The book concludes with some ghastly photos of wartime attrocities, including pictures of young men badly disfigured (one picture shows a man with half his face missing, both upper jaw and nose being completely removed). Such is the price of maintaining American sovereignity and imperial power. Or, as Smedley would cynically observe, such is the price we pay for domination by corporate elites.

Also of interest: _Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace_, a collection of "isolationist" essays edited by Harry Elmer Barnes and revealing the hidden agenda behind United States entry into World War II. Currently available from the Institute for Historical Review.

70 years ago this war hero exposed the war racketeeers in short, simple but hard hitting prose. It's just a shame more people didn't listen to him as today a draft dodger and war profiteer sits in the white house. Bush is the epitomy of everything that Smedley Butler warned about.

This book is an anti war classic. Check it out now, you don't even have to pay teh ten bucks; its available online and only takes about twenty minutes to read.

Dear readers, I first heard of Major General Smedley Butler when I joined the Marines twelve years ago. Hearing of his exploits while in Boot Camp, us recruits all wished we had as much guts as this Demi-God.
Imagine my suprise now, after having learned that our brave and tough idol had confessed to being the best "enforcer" for big business there ever was! He then became a whistle blower of the highest order.
Brave and honest men and women who attain some kind of fame on the world stage do not get to live too long in this world. Their outspokeness is extinguished as soon as people start listening. In General Butler's case there was a glitch in the system. He rose to the heights in rank because of his courage, heart, and tenacity during times of WAR. They had no choice but to elevate him. He earned his unobstructed view of how the world works with blood, sweat, and tears. When he realized that he was just being used... All hell broke loose. His passionate essay in this book should be read by everyone living in this great country. He tells it the way it was and the way it still is.
It's going to be a while before someone else from so high-up steps "out of line" and talks. Can you imagine this happening nowadays? Not gonna happen. It seems that Generals are now chosen for political reasons.
So read this book about the brave General who showed even more courage as a Civilian.

This book is a real gem, a classic, that should be in any library desiring to focus on national security. It is a very readable collection of short essays, ending with a concise collection of photographs that show the horror of war--on one page in particular, a pile of artillery shells labeled "Cause" and below is a photo of a massive pile of bodies, labeled "Effect."

Of particular interest to anyone concerned about the current national security situation, both its expensive mis-adventures abroad and its intrusive violation of many Constitutional rights at home, is the author's history, not only as a the most decorated Marine at the time, with campaign experience all over the world, but as a spokesperson, in retirement, for placing constitutional American principles over imperialist American practice.

The following quotations from the book are intended to summarize it:

"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts 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 benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." [p. 10]

"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]

"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]

General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of tramautized soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home.

This decorated Marine, who understands and documents in detail the exorbitant profits that a select few insiders (hence the term "racket") make from war, proposes three specific anti-war measures:

1) Take the profit out of war. Nationalize and mobilize the industrial sector, and pay every manager no more than each soldier earns.

2) Vote for war or no war on the basis of a limited plebisite in which only those being asked to bear arms and die for their country are permitted to vote.

3) Limit US military forces, by Constitutional amendment, to home defense purposes only.

There is a great deal of wisdom and practical experience in this small book--Smedley Butler is to war profiteering what S.L.A. Marshall is to "the soldier's load." While a globalized world and the complex integration of both national and non-national interests do seem to require a global national security strategy and a means of exerting global influence, I am convinced that he is correct about the fundamentals: we must take the profit out of war, and restore the voice of the people in the matter of making war.