At 06:33 PM 10/11/2002 +0200, Anonymous <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >On Fri, 11 Oct 2002 10:29:53 -0400, you wrote: > > > > "War is just a racket ... something that is not what it seems to the > > majority of people. Only a small group knows what its about. It is > > conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the > > masses." --- Major General Smedley Butler, 1933 > > > > "Our overriding purpose, from the beginning through to the present > > day, has been world domination - that is, to build and maintain the > > capacity to coerce everybody else on the planet: nonviolently, if > > possible, and violently, if necessary. But the purpose of US foreign > > policy of domination is not just to make the rest of the world jump > > through hoops; the purpose is to faciliate our exploitation of > > resources." > > - Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General > >Is there some reason you want to publish these bogus, uncitationed, false, >propaganda quotations? >Just adding to misinformation? Preferring to further downgrade the public >discourse? Planting lies >for subsequent citation as proof of something? What an asshole.
In War Is A Racket, Butler argued for a powerful navy, but one prohibited from traveling more than 200 miles from the U.S. coastline. Military aircraft could travel no more than 500 miles from the U.S. coast, and the army would be prohibited from leaving the United States. Butler also proposed that all workers in defense industries, from the lowest laborer to the highest executive, be limited to "$30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get." He also proposed that a declaration of war should be passed by a plebiscite in which only those subject to conscription would be eligible to vote. There are many references to the Butler quote although I can't find a citation which gives the event(s) from which the speech occurred. I'll keep looking. BTW Butler was a very interesting , colorful and it seems key fellow in American history. But for his political and economic naivete a coup d'itat intended to remove President Franklin D. Roosevelt from office in 1934 might have succeeded. Bummer! "War is just a racket ... something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small group knows what its about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses." --- Major General Smedley Butler, 1933