![]() ![]() Giving soldiers medals for service was much cheaper than giving money, which was the norm in the US Civil War. Smedley makes the amusing (from a detached perspective) observation that in WW1 the US cleverly replaced recruitment bonuses with medals. ![]() He also describes the waste and corruption inherent in military spending. Smedley demonstrates the high public cost and resultant high business profits of war, giving many examples of US companies which greatly increased their profits during WW1. Read moreĪ short condemnation of war by a man who spent his life fighting wars. This book is very highly recommended, especially for those who think that war is a clean videogame where no one really gets hurt. The separate pieces were published in a time when many Americans felt that getting involved in another European war that had nothing to do with America, was a terrible idea. Also, go to a VA hospital to see the real aftermath of war.This isn't so much an antiwar book as it is an isolationist book. ![]() All employees of those companies, from the CEO down to the assembly line worker, should have their salary cut to equal the base pay of the soldier who is fighting, and dying, to improve their bottom line. Also, one month before anyone is conscripted, all of American business and industry who profits from war should be conscripted, from weapons makers to international banks to uniform makers. But the voting should be limited only to those of conscription age, those who will do the actual fighting and dying. The parallels with today are too numerous to mention.The next time war is declared, and conscription is on the horizon, Butler proposes a limited national plebiscite on whether or not America should go to war. When the war ended, the wrench maker was about to make some nuts to fit the wrenches. The wrenches were put on freight cars and sent all around America to try and find a use for them. The problem is that there was only one nut large enough for those wrenches it holds the turbines at Niagara Falls. One company sold Uncle Sam 12 dozen 48-inch wrenches. Then why, when the war came, did that same profit margin skyrocket to hundreds, or even thousands of percent? The author also mentions several cases of companies who sold the US Government totally useless items. After that, he began to speak out about the real motives behind America's military actions-profit.Just before World War I, the profit margin of the average American corporation was in the single digits (6%, 8%, perhaps 10% profit yearly). After retiring, he exposed a corporate/fascist plot to seize the White House right after Franklin Roosevelt became President. Butler was a highly decorated Marine Brigadier General who was involved in many military expeditions in the early 20th century to countries like Haiti, China and Cuba. The pieces that make up this book were first published about 70 years ago. ![]() Read for the first time Butler’s words with Ventura’s witty, yet insightful spin on this relevant work that will appeal not only to military historians, but also to those interested in the state of our country and the entire world. Butler was a visionary in his day, and Ventura works to show how right he was and how wrong our current democracy is. Jesse Ventura reviews Major General Butler’s original writings and brings them up to date, relating them to our current political climate. Butler made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech, “War Is a Racket.” The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version that was published in 1935, now republished with a foreword by former governor of Minnesota and New York Times bestselling author Jesse Ventura. After his retirement from the Marine Corps, Gen. In these works, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired US Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley Darlington Butler. ![]()
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