The Way Forward

He is one ruling class asshole, on a global plantation of ruling class assholes, that reside on this rock. War is a racket, and don't think for a minute that the money being shoveled into wars, instead of helping the masses, doesn't factor into people staying home on election day. Warmongering by the United States is a bipartisan affair and always has been. Is everything the fault of the United States and the West ? Well no, that's bullshit campism and reactionary anti-imperialism but that's not the point. People want to make proclamations based on subjective beliefs of history that fit their political ideology, rather than the actual historical realities. That's not critical thinking. It's dogmatic historical revisionism.


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.


--U.S General Smedley Butler (1933) (Public Domain)