"Simply a Racket"
Legendary Marine Corps officer Major General Smedley Butler was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor twice for separate acts of outstanding heroism.
In a 1933 speech, Butler admitted: “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.”
Butler’s words elicit memories of "The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Tennyson. “Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die...”
My mental faculties seemed to have remained in suspended animation for more than a decade after being discharged from the Marine Corps. The Vietnam quagmire enabled me to begin thinking critically about the office of Commander-in-Chief. Some veterans fail to reason why or make reply regarding a Commander-in-Chief for the rest of their lives. They obediently follow our national leader without question, especially if it involves the use of military force.
A positive development that might come from the quagmire in Iraq is that veterans will be enlightened by the beginning of Butler’s 1933 speech, in which, he asserted: “Only a small inside group knows what war is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses... 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.”
Our homes were not attacked on 9/11. Only symbols of corporate greed and the military industrial complex that does it's bidding were attacked. Obviously, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were not empty and 3,000 innocent Americans were killed. If the primary goal of the 9/11 terrorists was to kill as many Americans as possible a better target would have been a packed Yankee Stadium, where they could have easily killed 30,000 innocent people.
The victims of 9/11 were collateral damage as far those terrorist were concerned. Fortunately, the experience of collateral damage has been rare for Americans, but it hasn’t been rare for our enemies. The loss of innocent life in the bombings of Dresden,Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Hanoi were considered collateral damage by Americans.
We’ve provided our enemies the gruesome experience of collateral damage many times, but on 9/11, we learned what it feels like. Americans can’t seem to understand that we are hated for what we’ve done and not for what we believe.
A former senior member of the U. S. intelligence community, Michael Scheuer wrote "Imperial Hubris", while with the CIA. Scheuer warned: “One of the greatest dangers for Americans in deciding how to confront the threat from al Qaeda lies in continuing to believe... Muslims hate us for what we think, rather than for what we do. We repeatedly hear: ‘because they hate freedom’ from senior U.S. leaders. Such a conclusion is potentially fatal nonsense.”
Muslim around the world understand that the term “our strategic interest” is a code word for gaining control of their oil. Iran is seeking nuclear weapons because they fear their oil reserves are next on the agenda for our military industrial complex. Our continued occupation of Iraq provides al Qaeda with the greatest recruitment propaganda imaginable.
“Thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!”- Friedrich Nietsche
In a 1933 speech, Butler admitted: “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.”
Butler’s words elicit memories of "The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Tennyson. “Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die...”
My mental faculties seemed to have remained in suspended animation for more than a decade after being discharged from the Marine Corps. The Vietnam quagmire enabled me to begin thinking critically about the office of Commander-in-Chief. Some veterans fail to reason why or make reply regarding a Commander-in-Chief for the rest of their lives. They obediently follow our national leader without question, especially if it involves the use of military force.
A positive development that might come from the quagmire in Iraq is that veterans will be enlightened by the beginning of Butler’s 1933 speech, in which, he asserted: “Only a small inside group knows what war is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses... 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.”
Our homes were not attacked on 9/11. Only symbols of corporate greed and the military industrial complex that does it's bidding were attacked. Obviously, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were not empty and 3,000 innocent Americans were killed. If the primary goal of the 9/11 terrorists was to kill as many Americans as possible a better target would have been a packed Yankee Stadium, where they could have easily killed 30,000 innocent people.
The victims of 9/11 were collateral damage as far those terrorist were concerned. Fortunately, the experience of collateral damage has been rare for Americans, but it hasn’t been rare for our enemies. The loss of innocent life in the bombings of Dresden,Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Hanoi were considered collateral damage by Americans.
We’ve provided our enemies the gruesome experience of collateral damage many times, but on 9/11, we learned what it feels like. Americans can’t seem to understand that we are hated for what we’ve done and not for what we believe.
A former senior member of the U. S. intelligence community, Michael Scheuer wrote "Imperial Hubris", while with the CIA. Scheuer warned: “One of the greatest dangers for Americans in deciding how to confront the threat from al Qaeda lies in continuing to believe... Muslims hate us for what we think, rather than for what we do. We repeatedly hear: ‘because they hate freedom’ from senior U.S. leaders. Such a conclusion is potentially fatal nonsense.”
Muslim around the world understand that the term “our strategic interest” is a code word for gaining control of their oil. Iran is seeking nuclear weapons because they fear their oil reserves are next on the agenda for our military industrial complex. Our continued occupation of Iraq provides al Qaeda with the greatest recruitment propaganda imaginable.
“Thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!”- Friedrich Nietsche
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