"War is a Racket" from General S.D. Butler

"War is a racket. . . It may seem odd for me, a military man, to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent 33 years in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force --the Marine Corps -- . . . I helped make Mexico and 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 benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras 'right' for American fruit companies in 1903 . . . "Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best that he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents". S. D. Butler "Butler understood the more honest function of the Marines (and U.S. foreign policy in general) was to forcefully maintain structures protecting the haves from the have-nots." { from www.VeteransForPeace.Org/military.htm}. We feature many more excellent quotes of this sort at our http://LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/warvspeace.html .

Cited by Ray Dubuque in Opednews.com