Posted: 9/9/2011 6:57:54 AM EDT
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What do you think? Was he right?
I haven't studied him in detail (yet), but he does make some interesting points about how the military has been used when there may not have been a national security interest. I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. 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. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might 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.
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Old Gimlet Eye had some pretty socialist leanings to be sure but he was a hell of a Marine. Want to read some interesting stuff. "The plotters attempted to recruit General Smedley Butler to lead the coup. They selected him because he was a war hero who was popular with the troops. The plotters felt his good reputation was important to make the troops feel confident that they were doing the right thing by overthrowing a democratically elected president. However, this was a mistake: Butler was popular with the troops because he identified with them. That is, he was a man of the people, not the elite. When the plotters approached General Butler with their proposal to lead the coup, he pretended to go along with the plan at first, secretly deciding to betray it to Congress at the right moment. http://churchvstate.org/about/FDRcoup.html http://american_almanac.tripod.com/smedley.htm |
| Yeah, he was right. Back then, we basically invaded a Caribbean island whenever the island government couldn't pay it's external debt. We handled it because if we didn't, the Europeans certainly would have sent their own troops to make them pay up in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Of course, most of those island governments were corrupt and incompetent so the Marines had to do everything. Run the police and all public services, have Navy paymasters run the tax offices. Went straight to crap as soon as we pulled out though. China was more of the same, economic exploitation backed by force and led by European powers competing for money and influence. America's options were to tag along with the Europeans or get left out. There's a good book on the topic, The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot. Lots of good history on the various military operations in that era. |
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Yeah, he was right. Back then. His statement has ZERO relevance to the military of today. In before the assholes with their Big Oil/Halliburton bullshit. really? the iraq war costs $700 million per DAY how much of that you think is getting skimmed? with no end in sight |
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Yeah, he was right. Back then. His statement has ZERO relevance to the military of today. In before the assholes with their Big Oil/Halliburton bullshit. Of course not, different times, different rules a century ago. the rules never ever change |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Yeah, he was right. Back then. His statement has ZERO relevance to the military of today. In before the assholes with their Big Oil/Halliburton bullshit. really? the iraq war costs $700 million per DAY how much of that you think is getting skimmed? with no end in sight $60 Billion in waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the the last ten years $12 Million per day |