J.Hartman
March 7th, 2005, 04:00 PM
Very poignant essay by Marine General Butler, note that this was written about WW1. He died in 1940...very prophetic of his comments of World War 1 and other foreign affairs. He could easily be writing about Iraq today.
It's a rather long essay but quite good in my opinion.
War is a Racket (http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm)
One comment in particular pissed me off and rings quite true:
Looking back, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in 1916 on a platform that he had "kept us out of war" and on the implied promise that he would "keep us out of war." Yet, five months later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany
Then you read on...
An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over shortly before the war declaration and called on the President. The President summoned a group of advisers. The head of the commission spoke. Stripped of its diplomatic language, this is what he told the President and his group:
"There is no use kidding ourselves any longer. The cause of the allies is lost. We now owe you (American bankers, American munitions makers, American manufacturers, American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion dollars. If we lose (and without the help of the United States we must lose) we, England, France and Italy, cannot pay back this money...and Germany won't. So..."
Ahh...the blind patriotism and love of motherland that leads us to war, or is it always those blinded by greed and love of money pulling our strings?
Thanks for listening and reading, comments are appreciated...Jon.
It's a rather long essay but quite good in my opinion.
War is a Racket (http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm)
One comment in particular pissed me off and rings quite true:
Looking back, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in 1916 on a platform that he had "kept us out of war" and on the implied promise that he would "keep us out of war." Yet, five months later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany
Then you read on...
An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over shortly before the war declaration and called on the President. The President summoned a group of advisers. The head of the commission spoke. Stripped of its diplomatic language, this is what he told the President and his group:
"There is no use kidding ourselves any longer. The cause of the allies is lost. We now owe you (American bankers, American munitions makers, American manufacturers, American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion dollars. If we lose (and without the help of the United States we must lose) we, England, France and Italy, cannot pay back this money...and Germany won't. So..."
Ahh...the blind patriotism and love of motherland that leads us to war, or is it always those blinded by greed and love of money pulling our strings?
Thanks for listening and reading, comments are appreciated...Jon.