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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon
- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: Today's Quote...
- Message-ID: <1992Jul26.093512.29189@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: ?
- Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 09:35:12 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 55
-
-
- "War is a racket. Our stake in that racket has never been greater in
- all out peace-time history. It may seem odd for me, a military man, to
- adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent 33 years
- and 4 months 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 *he* could do was to operate his racket in three city
- districts. We Marines operated on three *continents*"
-
- --Marine Corps Major General Smedley D. Butler. Twice wounded in
- action and twenty times decorated, Smedley Butler was also one of the
- few Americans to be twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
-
- ----------------------
-
- Butler commanded a marine detachment sent to Nicaragua in
- 1910...here's his description of how he managed that intervention:
-
- "Dr. Madris [the president of Nicaragua] grew cold toward the
- Nicaraguan investments of Brown Bros. and Seligman & Co. Another
- revolution immediately 'occurred' and our State Department sent a
- representative to see that the revolution was successful. Near
- Bluefields was the property of a large American gold mine, whose stock
- was owned mainly by Pittsburgh financiers and partly by the then
- Secretary of State, Philander CD. Knox. President Madris refused to
- recognize the validity of the gold mining concession and 225 Marines
- immediately were dispatched to Bluefields to 'protect American lives
- and property.' I commanded those Marines and in order to be sure that
- there was an American life to protect in Bluefields I made certain
- that local American consul was on the job. There wasn't another
- American in miles..."
-
- ["America's Armed Forces", in _Common Sense_, October 1935 to Feb.
- 1936 (an article in five parts) [see part I, p.6; part II, p.8; part
- III, pp. 13-14]]
- "The failure of US policy makers to press for a negotiated end to the
- war in El Salvador has placed our country in league with a clique of
- assassins masquerading as an army...
-
-
- ##################################################################
- Mail contributions to hbar@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- (Contributions only; correspondence to my usual (Cornell) address)
-