War is a Racket (Part 1 of 5)

"WAR is a racket.  It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.  It is the only one international in scope.  It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the 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 very many.  Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict.  At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.  That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns.  How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle?  How many of them dug a trench?  How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out?  How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets?  How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy?  How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious.  They just take it.  This newly acquired territory is exploited by the few - the self same few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.  The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting.  Newly placed gravestones.  Mangled bodies.  Shattered minds.  Broken hearts and homes.  Economic instability.  Depression and all its attendant miseries.  Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations."

Although General Butler was referencing early 20th century America, the same truths that he wrote about apply to the world today.  In part 2 we will see who makes the profit from war.

Part 1 - War is a racket
Part 2 - Who makes the profits?
Part 3 - Who pays the bills?
Part 4 - How to smash this racket!
Part 5 - To hell with war!

Drew
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