Seldom Quoted
Republicans seldom quote former president and war hero, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Obviously, they have forgotten that he said: “When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.”
Apparently, congressional Democrats and Republicans no longer remember that Eisenhower warned: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Furthermore, they’re unable to recall that Eisenhower said: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children.”
Today, the least popular quote by any Republican president might be: “I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it.”
Another seldom quoted war hero that our representatives in Congress never mention is Smedley Butler. That is because few politicians or, for that matter Marines have ever heard of the legendary Marine Corps officer. Major General Butler was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor twice for separate acts of outstanding heroism. The reason that this national hero of the early 1930’s is no longer remembered is that he had the audacity to reveal: “War is a Racket.”
Smedley Butler wrote: “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.”
Butler spent thirty-three years and four months on active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. He served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General.
During that period, Butler admitted: “I spent most of my time, being a high class muscleman for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” Butler insisted that: “historically war has been the most profitable racket, and the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
He pointed out that war is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many and out of war a few people make huge fortune.
Apparently, congressional Democrats and Republicans no longer remember that Eisenhower warned: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Furthermore, they’re unable to recall that Eisenhower said: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children.”
Today, the least popular quote by any Republican president might be: “I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it.”
Another seldom quoted war hero that our representatives in Congress never mention is Smedley Butler. That is because few politicians or, for that matter Marines have ever heard of the legendary Marine Corps officer. Major General Butler was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor twice for separate acts of outstanding heroism. The reason that this national hero of the early 1930’s is no longer remembered is that he had the audacity to reveal: “War is a Racket.”
Smedley Butler wrote: “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.”
Butler spent thirty-three years and four months on active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. He served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General.
During that period, Butler admitted: “I spent most of my time, being a high class muscleman for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” Butler insisted that: “historically war has been the most profitable racket, and the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
He pointed out that war is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many and out of war a few people make huge fortune.
posted by Jim O'Leary | 12:45 AM
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