Major General Smedley Butler USMC
Throughout the years various men of military service have spoken up and spoken out against the actions of the American military. Some men speak up about atrocities that have gone covered up, about discrimination, about deceptions that have been used against the American public, and about actions that have been taken that are contrary to what they view as American principles. Major General Smedley Butler is one of the most outspoken military service men who opposed the actions of the military that he served in.
Marine Smedley Darling Butler is one of the most highly decorated military men from the pre-World War II era. He served from 1898 to 1931 and saw action all over the world.
Butler became a prominent political figure and was one of America’s important leaders of the liberal movement of the 1930s. Butler advocated military isolationism and was against American involvement in World War II. His isolationist views are certainly unpopular today, and in fact are not compatible with the current geopolitical situation. His views, however, developed from 33 years of serving as what he called “a gangster for capitalism.”
All told Butler gave over 1,200 speeches in over 700 cities during his speaking tour of the United States.
In 1935 Butler published War is a Racket, which got high praise at the time, as well as strong criticism. The forward by Lowell Thomas spoke of Butler’s “moral as well as physical courage” and noted that “Even his opponents concede that in his stand on public questions, General Butler has been motivated by the same fiery integrity and loyal patriotism which has distinguished his service in countless Marine campaigns.
The following is an excerpt from a speech he gave in 1933:
“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests 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.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
Friday, May 10, 2013
S. Brian Willson
S. Brian Willson
This site contains essays describing the incredible historic pattern of U.S. arrogance, ethnocentrism, violence and lawlessness in domestic and global affairs, and the severe danger this pattern poses for the future health of Homo sapiens and Mother Earth. Other essays discuss revolutionary, nonviolent alternative approaches based on the principle of radical relational mutuality. This is a term increasingly used by physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists to describe the nature of the omnicentric*, ever-unfolding universe. Every being, every aspect of life energy in the cosmos, is intrinsically interconnected with and affects every other being and aspect of life energy at every moment.
*everything is at the center of the cosmos at every moment
A Vietnam Vetren's web site
http://www.brianwillson.com/
This site contains essays describing the incredible historic pattern of U.S. arrogance, ethnocentrism, violence and lawlessness in domestic and global affairs, and the severe danger this pattern poses for the future health of Homo sapiens and Mother Earth. Other essays discuss revolutionary, nonviolent alternative approaches based on the principle of radical relational mutuality. This is a term increasingly used by physicists, mathematicians and cosmologists to describe the nature of the omnicentric*, ever-unfolding universe. Every being, every aspect of life energy in the cosmos, is intrinsically interconnected with and affects every other being and aspect of life energy at every moment.
*everything is at the center of the cosmos at every moment
A Vietnam Vetren's web site
http://www.brianwillson.com/
The Bonus Army
The Bonus Army
In 1924, a grateful Congress voted to give a bonus to World War I veterans - $1.25 for each day served overseas, $1.00 for each day served in the States. The catch was that payment would not be made until 1945. However, by 1932 the nation had slipped into the dark days of the Depression and the unemployed veterans wanted their money immediately.
In May of that year, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but the public dubbed them the "Bonus Army." Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited.
The veterans made their largest camp at Anacostia Flats across the river from the Capitol. Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters built from materials dragged out of a junk pile nearby - old lumber, packing boxes and scrap tin covered with roofs of thatched straw.
Discipline in the camp was good, despite the fears of many city residents who spread unfounded "Red Scare" rumors. Streets were laid out, latrines dug, and formations held daily. Newcomers were required to register and prove they were bonafide veterans who had been honorably discharged. Their leader, Walter Waters, stated, "We're here for the duration and we're not going to starve. We're going to keep ourselves a simon-pure veteran's organization. If the Bonus is paid it will relieve to a large extent the deplorable economic condition."
June 17 was described by a local newspaper as "the tensest day in the capital since the war." The Senate was voting on the bill already passed by the House to immediately give the vets their bonus money. By dusk, 10,000 marchers crowded the Capitol grounds expectantly awaiting the outcome. Walter Waters, leader of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, appeared with bad news. The Senate had defeated the bill by a vote of 62 to 18. The crowd reacted with stunned silence. "Sing America and go back to your billets" he commanded, and they did. A silent "Death March" began in front of the Capitol and lasted until July 17, when Congress adjourned.
A month later, on July 28, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the evacuation of the veterans from all government property, Entrusted with the job, the Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two marchers killed. Learning of the shooting at lunch, President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans. Infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as his liaison with Washington police and Major George Patton led the cavalry.
By 4:45 P.M. the troops were massed on Pennsylvania Ave. below the Capitol. Thousands of Civil Service employees spilled out of work and lined the streets to watch. The veterans, assuming the military display was in their honor, cheered. Suddenly Patton's troopers turned and charged. "Shame, Shame" the spectators cried. Soldiers with fixed bayonets followed, hurling tear gas into the crowd.
By nightfall the BEF had retreated across the Anacostia River where Hoover ordered MacArthur to stop. Ignoring the command, the general led his infantry to the main camp. By early morning the 10,000 inhabitants were routed and the camp in flames. Two babies died and nearby hospitals overwhelmed with casualties. Eisenhower later wrote, "the whole scene was pitiful. The veterans were ragged, ill-fed, and felt themselves badly abused. To suddenly see the whole encampment going up in flames just added to the pity."
References:
Bartlett, John Henry, The Bonus March and the New Deal (1937); Daniels, Roger, The Bonus March; an Episode of the Great Depression (1971).
More sites reguarding the reality of this:
http://zinnedproject.org/materials/the-bonus-army/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IiMuzkpT8Xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlegmV5OJtM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13NlsmLODc&feature=related
In 1924, a grateful Congress voted to give a bonus to World War I veterans - $1.25 for each day served overseas, $1.00 for each day served in the States. The catch was that payment would not be made until 1945. However, by 1932 the nation had slipped into the dark days of the Depression and the unemployed veterans wanted their money immediately.
In May of that year, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but the public dubbed them the "Bonus Army." Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited.
The veterans made their largest camp at Anacostia Flats across the river from the Capitol. Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters built from materials dragged out of a junk pile nearby - old lumber, packing boxes and scrap tin covered with roofs of thatched straw.
Discipline in the camp was good, despite the fears of many city residents who spread unfounded "Red Scare" rumors. Streets were laid out, latrines dug, and formations held daily. Newcomers were required to register and prove they were bonafide veterans who had been honorably discharged. Their leader, Walter Waters, stated, "We're here for the duration and we're not going to starve. We're going to keep ourselves a simon-pure veteran's organization. If the Bonus is paid it will relieve to a large extent the deplorable economic condition."
June 17 was described by a local newspaper as "the tensest day in the capital since the war." The Senate was voting on the bill already passed by the House to immediately give the vets their bonus money. By dusk, 10,000 marchers crowded the Capitol grounds expectantly awaiting the outcome. Walter Waters, leader of the Bonus Expeditionary Force, appeared with bad news. The Senate had defeated the bill by a vote of 62 to 18. The crowd reacted with stunned silence. "Sing America and go back to your billets" he commanded, and they did. A silent "Death March" began in front of the Capitol and lasted until July 17, when Congress adjourned.
A month later, on July 28, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the evacuation of the veterans from all government property, Entrusted with the job, the Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two marchers killed. Learning of the shooting at lunch, President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans. Infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as his liaison with Washington police and Major George Patton led the cavalry.
By 4:45 P.M. the troops were massed on Pennsylvania Ave. below the Capitol. Thousands of Civil Service employees spilled out of work and lined the streets to watch. The veterans, assuming the military display was in their honor, cheered. Suddenly Patton's troopers turned and charged. "Shame, Shame" the spectators cried. Soldiers with fixed bayonets followed, hurling tear gas into the crowd.
By nightfall the BEF had retreated across the Anacostia River where Hoover ordered MacArthur to stop. Ignoring the command, the general led his infantry to the main camp. By early morning the 10,000 inhabitants were routed and the camp in flames. Two babies died and nearby hospitals overwhelmed with casualties. Eisenhower later wrote, "the whole scene was pitiful. The veterans were ragged, ill-fed, and felt themselves badly abused. To suddenly see the whole encampment going up in flames just added to the pity."
References:
Bartlett, John Henry, The Bonus March and the New Deal (1937); Daniels, Roger, The Bonus March; an Episode of the Great Depression (1971).
More sites reguarding the reality of this:
http://zinnedproject.org/materials/the-bonus-army/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IiMuzkpT8Xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlegmV5OJtM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13NlsmLODc&feature=related
Kill Squad
Last year, 11 soldiers were convicted over the murders of three Afghan civilians by a "kill squad" and the subsequent cover up. It was revealed that some of them collected body parts, including fingers and skull parts, as trophies, and posed for photographs over the corpses of their victims.
US soldiers were alleged to have sexually assaulted two female victims before they were killed in the Panjwai massacre in southern Kandahar last Sunday, a high-level Afghan probe team revealed.
The Wolesi Jirga’s, or lower house of Parliament, delegation investigating the Kandahar shootings by US troops said besides killing 16 civilians, the soldiers sexually assaulted them.
On the ill-fated Sunday, US troops shot 16 civilians, including nine children and three women, and injured five others when they opened fire on houses in Zangabad village, in Panjwai district.
Some of the victims’ bodies were later set on fire.
Shakiba Hashami, another delegation member, confirmed the vicious attack, adding about 15 to 20 American soldiers were involved in the killings and even helicopters were seen hovering the areas.
Join the "Colonization Occupation Movement" that continues to overthrow sovereign nations through acts of terror........The Most Dangerous of Rogue Nations: The United States...... Heading up The New World Order......
YOU KNOW, GIVING THE TRACK RECORD OF THE US GOVERNMENT WHEN IT COMES TO LYING.....ANY ONE WHO ENLISTS INTO THIS MILITARY BASED ON A LIE WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE........IGNORANCE OF THE TRUTH IS NO EXCUSE........(9-11 WAS IN INSIDE JOB)
WEB SITE>>>>>
http://thewe.name/weplanet/asia/afghanistan/afghanistan.html
Iraqi Womans Speech
Veterans Against the War
Iraq womans speech at a rally
Wanna undrestand? How a thousand times over isn't enough? 30 more years of ripping skin. Decades of choked pain that drains the colour from the flesh that torments the mind and eats through the nerves. Do you wanna understand? How it feels when your mother is raped with bullets and your fathers every cell locked in steel. Do you? Huh? Do you? How every dream for peace and return is slapped with the reality of a branded burn. How every morning prayer is split into seventy-seven consecutive funerals in Meymenah. But not before every corpse is dragged on the back of a pick up truck to the governor of Kandahar. Because bunker buster bombs beheaded the orphans in Nangarhar. Because the drill of rocket attacks launched from Bagram left a permanent drum in Ariana's bleeding ear...and she can't fall asleep at night without the lull of a Tomcats drone. She can't make it in the day if here cries arent met with roadside roar. You wanna know? Do you? That even the wind has a color in Afghanistan ,the color of soot-covered rose...Because the earth has no stomach to house casualties of war.
YES WE WILL LOVE YOU EVEN WHEN 1600-pound bombs are deployed to break our backs. We will love you even when you insult us by desecrating our dead. We will love you....
We will LOVE. My tax dollaor funded Green,Blue,Brown,Hazel Foreign Eyed OCCUPYING, Khakhi Camo INVADING. Extraterritorial, out your element Gung Ho war mongering Bible Muttering, Afgan Blood on Your Hands . US/NATO led and Lost soldier. We will love you....Because LOVE, NOT HATRED, IS THE I-REPRESSIBLE SPRING WHICH OUTLASTS OCCUPATION..
Huh, do you wanna understand? Do you? Mister and Mrs Dispatcher? "We are...Living, Breathing Dead bodies."
No War Machine's pre-calculated executions will carpet bomb us into submission. The US and NATO War of Liberation is no more liberated than our dead. Is no more liberated than our last breath.......
Afghans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Iraq womans speech at a rally
Wanna undrestand? How a thousand times over isn't enough? 30 more years of ripping skin. Decades of choked pain that drains the colour from the flesh that torments the mind and eats through the nerves. Do you wanna understand? How it feels when your mother is raped with bullets and your fathers every cell locked in steel. Do you? Huh? Do you? How every dream for peace and return is slapped with the reality of a branded burn. How every morning prayer is split into seventy-seven consecutive funerals in Meymenah. But not before every corpse is dragged on the back of a pick up truck to the governor of Kandahar. Because bunker buster bombs beheaded the orphans in Nangarhar. Because the drill of rocket attacks launched from Bagram left a permanent drum in Ariana's bleeding ear...and she can't fall asleep at night without the lull of a Tomcats drone. She can't make it in the day if here cries arent met with roadside roar. You wanna know? Do you? That even the wind has a color in Afghanistan ,the color of soot-covered rose...Because the earth has no stomach to house casualties of war.
YES WE WILL LOVE YOU EVEN WHEN 1600-pound bombs are deployed to break our backs. We will love you even when you insult us by desecrating our dead. We will love you....
We will LOVE. My tax dollaor funded Green,Blue,Brown,Hazel Foreign Eyed OCCUPYING, Khakhi Camo INVADING. Extraterritorial, out your element Gung Ho war mongering Bible Muttering, Afgan Blood on Your Hands . US/NATO led and Lost soldier. We will love you....Because LOVE, NOT HATRED, IS THE I-REPRESSIBLE SPRING WHICH OUTLASTS OCCUPATION..
Huh, do you wanna understand? Do you? Mister and Mrs Dispatcher? "We are...Living, Breathing Dead bodies."
No War Machine's pre-calculated executions will carpet bomb us into submission. The US and NATO War of Liberation is no more liberated than our dead. Is no more liberated than our last breath.......
Afghans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
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