EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food"
- Patent Filing Claims Solar Energy ‘Breakthrough’
- Climate Change's 'Evil Twin': Ocean Acidification
- Disaster Capitalism Strikes as Hedge Funds Circle Near-Bankrupt Municipalities Like Vultures
- Ignoring Bee Crisis, EPA Greenlights New 'Highly Toxic' Pesticide
- Patent Filing Claims Solar Energy ‘Breakthrough’
- Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food"
- Climate Change's 'Evil Twin': Ocean Acidification
- In 'March Toward Disaster,' World Hits 400 PPM Milestone
- Ignoring Bee Crisis, EPA Greenlights New 'Highly Toxic' Pesticide
Popular content
Today's Top News
Racketeers for Capitalism
"I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism."
-- Major General Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket (1935)
I remember when the US war dead in Iraq reached 1000 sometime in the summer of 2005. My youngest child and her boyfriend accompanied me to a vigil in Davis, Ca. where we held candles, pictures of Casey, each other, and sobbed-not just for Casey, but for all the rest, also. And not just for the Americans, but for the Iraqis, too.
Then I remember when the needless toll reached 2000 in the fall of 2005-I got arrested with about 25 others in front of the White House-such organizations at MoveOn.org preferred candlelight vigils to direct action. I warned them if we didn't do something, then we would be mourning 3000-that total came in the early spring of 2007. Now the total for Iraq stands at 4415 and I was recently told by the founder of Veterans for Peace Arlington West Memorial on the beach in Santa Barbara (where I first visited five weeks after Casey was killed on Mother's Day) that they would no longer place a cross in the sand for my son, or the other 4414 dead in Iraq because Iraq is "old news."
Today, (August 17) we learn that in Afghanistan, three U.S. troops, three NATO troops and at least seven civilians were killed. This is another grim marker along the Imperial Road to Ruin as Barack Obama's regime has managed to kill as many troops in Afghanistan in 19 months as the Bush stain did in seven years.
I happen to believe that the wars and everything else became Obama's problems on January 20, 2009, but in reading comments about today's carnage on that bastion of centrism, the Huffington Post - many people either believe that the Afghanistan occupation just became Obama's War today, or that (in the case of at least one commenter) - Obama was forced to send more troops, and when one sends more troops, more of them will die. The matter-of-fact callousness of this remark stung like a hornet to me, and I bet the mothers of numbers 1227, 1228, and 1229 did not feel so cavalier when the Grim Reapers in dress khakis knocked on their doors today.
As little as we hear about U.S. troops, as is our custom here in the Empire, the tragic slaughter of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan doesn't even deserve a blip on our radar screens. I watched three hours of MSDNC (MSNBC) tonight and the manipulative gyrations to find out how many ways that they could talk about the "distraction" of the "mosque" at ground zero without talking about the one-million plus Arabs (Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc) that the psychopathic U.S. response to September 11, 2001 has killed, was pathetic and frustrating to watch.
There has been a bumper sticker saying for years that goes: "What if they gave a war and no one showed up?"
Well, "they," the ones that give the wars are not going to stop. "They" have too much at stake to give up the cash cow of wars for Imperial Profit, Power, and Expansion. "They" use the toady media to whip up nationalistic and patriotic fervor to get our kids to be thrown together with the victims in a meat grinder of destruction and we just sit here and allow them to do it.
The Empire preys on our kids using all the tools at its disposal: Economic panic, high college tuition, high unemployment and a mythology that the U.S. has some existential right to steal the resources of other nations.
Not only do these occupations needlessly kill humans on both sides, but our troops are being dehumanized because of the institutional dehumanization of the so-called enemies, also. If you have not seen the Wikileaks Collateral Murder video, you have to watch it, but you also have to realize that these callous crimes are a daily occurrence in the "war" zones-not isolated incidents. We allow "Them" to turn our youth into animals for their sport so they can live opulent and obscene lifestyles while most of us struggle to even make ends meet.
To be proactive, we have to stop offering up our children to be sacrificed for the profit of the few.
I have co-published the 75th Anniversary Edition of Major General Smedley Butler's War is a Racket.
This simple, yet eloquent treatise on the greed of the elite class to the pain and suffering of our class should be in every home, classroom, school library, and shelf of your local peace group.
The cannon fodder of the Empire first belongs to their families--then their communities--then the Empire with many other stops along the way for school, church, Scouts, sports, band, puppy-love, etc. WE are the only ones that can stop this. We not only can, but we must insert ourselves between the murderers and our children and the children of the world.
Ordering Info for 'War is a Racket'
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
74 Comments so far
Show AllThe criminal war class has not even had a pie thrown at anyone. What's up with that? Would people offer their kids to a butcher and then wave a flag? Isn't it the same damn thing? Given what we know today about the military and the military industrial complex and it's overreach, why would anyone feed their child to the military butchers. People who butcher our children for profit are not patriots, they are disgusting sociopaths, serial killers. They should not even be called people, muchless citizens. They are destroyers of life for profit, an abomination.
Here's a detailed story of the incident.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0817
/Carl-Levin-to-Ann-Coulter-the-political-history-of-a-pie-in-the-face
Ahlam M. Mohsen is a hero IMHO. We need more youngsters like them instead of the ones ignorantly staying hooked to cell phones and ipods. I saw some other results of her being accused of being anti-Israel and painting her as a violent Muslim. A white male Christian conservative would have gotten away with doing the same thing to Levin.
From the article..."the pastry-based terrorism of 'Al Pieda.' " LMFAO !
I was LMAO when I heard Senator Levin received a Dutch apple pie in the face! Too bad we can't order 99 more!
Levin got pied....it's oh so sweet !!!
My grandson wants to joim the army. My comment to him was "why do you want to work for an employer who will eventually require you to take human lives?" It's a sad world we live in.
Is CD actually running a piece by Cindy Sheehan?
I thought you dropped her because she CORRECTLY spoke out about Obama being a warmonger, just like Bush, starting very early in his presidency.
Please just admit that she was CORRECT and we can move on.
And the point of your "juet let me humiliate you and we can move on" is? How is you spitefulness and grudge-nursing going to allow anyone to "move on".
I myself was banned from this site under at least a half-dozen differnt user ID's for criticising the candidate Obama, so if I thought it would help, I would ask for an apoligy too, but what would be the point?
I was criticizing Obama regularly here, long before the election, in no uncertain terms, and was never banned. How can you have been banned a half dozen times for what many others were doing? I don't recall CD being some Obama protection site, unlike Huff Post, Daily Kos and MoveOn. Those places are hopeless mouthpieces for the Dems.
This is a rare occasion of disagreement, Ephraim. I refer to your penultimate sentence.
The exact rationale remains ambiguous to this day, because no explanation or clarification was ever presented. It remains a sore point with me.
Detailed discussion or even explicit reference to this dreadful interlude is still not tolerated here, so I'm not in a position to refresh your memory by elaborating more directly or persuasively.
I know CD had a new system being worked on at that time which just so happened to coincide with election season. My account was lost at one point gut I asked the admin and a few days later it was restored.
- Is CD actually running a piece by Cindy Sheehan? -
As I understood things, CD did not run her articles while she was an active politician, running for office.
Follow this link to the following story:
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
Cindy Sheehan Joins Peace and Freedom
On July 31 Cindy Sheehan changed her voter registration to the Peace and Freedom Party. She is the mother Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She is the national director of Peace of the Action, the author of five books and host of her own radio show, Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.
Note: The Peace and Freedom Party is California's only ballot-status socialist party. If you live in California and really want to help bring about change, register today for the Peace and Freedom Party while it is still possible! Proposition 14 threatens the existence of all third parties in California. We need your registration NOW to keep Peace and Freedom on the California ballot.
Peace and Freedom party is running a slate of candidates in California on this November 2010 Election. Links to the many candidates is available from the home page.
Click on "BLOG" at the top of the PFP home page or go to
http://peaceandfreedom.org/blog/
for many articles on socialist perspectives on current affairs.
Note the language used in the article and many of the comments that express your underlying hatred and contempt for nonhuman beings ("animals" to you):
We allow "Them" to turn our youth into animals for their sport so they can live opulent and obscene lifestyles while most of us struggle to even make ends meet.
Who would feed children to "military butchers," who were once children themselves, who watched adults butchering animals "for their sport so they can live opulent and obscene lifestyles . . . ."
What a psycho-pathetic species we human beings are!
Hey, I think this post is from "W" since it is such a misuncharacterization of the facts that it is attempting to irreffrudiate.
This is an outstanding article.
AD
WE have met the enemy, and he is US...Pogo?
Walt Kelly.
A while back I read that the armed forces induction pledge to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..." was changed to "support and defend American interests..." but now I can't find where I read that, and I can't seem to verify it.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/oathofenlist.htm
Are you referring to the change in 1960?
I found another link that might relate to what you said btw.
http://www.aina.org/news/20071001145238.jsp
In any care, military contractors are exempt from having to take an oath.
I wish I'd paid more attention. What I saw was just in the last couple of years, maybe 3-4 years.
I think you're ahead of most Americans so I think you are paying a lot more attention than most Americans. There are more military contractors than soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Replacing the troops in Iraq with mercenaries and calling it "peace" is as good as changing the wording on the pledge by now. If they haven't done so already, they should honestly change the wording so that the American people will get a little bit of awareness on the matter.
PS: I said "In any care" when it should have read "In any case".
Read "War is a Racket" at:
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf
I just bought a copy at Amazon for $5.14 plus shipping from Amazon. New or used......... same price. The Cindy supporter said new, the eco guy inside said used; eco guy won.
Everyone should read War is a Racket by: General Smedley D. Butler. " War is just a racket. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket ". His book should be required reading for every high school student and every member of our armed forces.
Sheehan: "a mythology that the U.S. has some existential right to steal the resources of other nations" Not enough has been said about who gets those resources. It's not clear to me that they even are being stolen for the U.S. exclusively. This is what is driving these wars (well, also to give our MIC a reason for being), and it isn't even on our behalf. I'm guessing it benefits the global oligarchy.
"I'm guessing it benefits the global oligarchy."
Precisely. U.S. children, and they are children, are dying for the opportunity of multi-national corporations to build pipelines across Afghanistan to sell gas and oil to points east. When it is said "they are fighting for our freedoms" they neglect to tell us that "our" means Unocal executives and stockholders.
Good to see an article by Cindy Sheehan here. She's the mother of the "Professional Left".
Yes! This woman's courage always finds its way to the center of my heart. I've heard her speak many times and am always transformed by her frankness, clarity, and honesty. Crawford was the shot heard around the nation.
Glad to see Cindy Sheehan back on Common Dreams.
Go, Cindy! ♥
"The Empire preys on our kids using all the tools at its disposal: Economic panic, high college tuition, high unemployment and a mythology that the U.S. has some existential right to steal the resources of other nations."
Yes, and don't forget to add benefits of health care and retirement. I know it's not the main point of the article, but it's worth noting America will never have universal health care because it would be impossible to recruit young people if everyone had access to the same health coverage. (And yes, because for-profit health insurance and Big Pharma have too much power and influence.) And the pension is still good, if one manages to live long enough. I know military members who retired in their 50s or even 40s and their retirement pay is enough to live on, but if they choose they can find a job and earn even more. As veterans, they are favored for employment and can earn a salary in addition to their retirement pay. In any city where there's a military base, it is harder for the locals to find work if they're competing with veterans and "dependents" of military members.
The health care benefits a soldier gets while serving mean nothing once the damage is done. Even during the Vietnam War, no amount of health care benefits could be capable of curing all soldiers of their PTSDs. And don't forget that even the best insurance doesn't necessarily guarantee you a doctor who will respect you. My last doctor was a racist but was luckily replaced.
Today's younger soldiers find less hope in getting a job after they come back from serving. There's Blackwater and all but if they want a job that is not military related, the testing for employment is much stricter against them. With the military further being privatized and contractors outnumbering the troops, begging for recruitment might not be necessary because the military is getting to be none more than a haven for amoral psychopath greedy mercenaries at large.
So, if the benefits are good enough, you are willing to take out as many people the whore with the the many colored chest will ask you to.
You are no different than Blankfein or Blankenship
Love
Zero
"So, if the benefits are good enough, you are willing to take out as many people the whore with the the many colored chest will ask you to. "
Personally, I would not do that. I was talking about our younger generation that is being conditioned into accepting greed and militarism as great virtues even when they're destructive.
"You are no different than Blankfein or Blankenship"
You are misinterpreting what I said and making an incorrect assumption. Pay attention.
If your comment was directed at me, no, not at all. But young people who have no prospects for employment don't see it that way, especially if they live in communities (most of America, actually) that still call military members "heroes" and thank them for their service. I would like to see everyone in America have access to the SAME health care; I don't think one's health care should be better just because they have a particular income level or job. But then I'm a socialist.
Thank you NMLib and ditto.
You have no idea what you are talking about or who you are talking to.
APOLOGIZE.
NOW.
Thank you Cindy. Glad you are still in there punching. Butler's essay should be required reading for every student, nay, every American.
We will never see this country commit peace until the profit is taken out of war and, unfortunately, I don't see that coming.
All we can do is keep trying. The somnolent American People are very hard to wake up, but once awake can be a formidable force (unfortunately, for evil as well as good). Unfortunately, the lullaby of Faux News et al,. is very soporific, and apparently We the People like to sleep late.
jill...i tried, with zero success, to suggest that local meet-ups of cd types might generate some ideas. i'm apparently not very persuasive. perhaps if they could conceive of themselves as officers in a CORPORATION!!!!!!!....anywho, i applaud your "thinking outside the box...a good idea that produces "right" action would be welcome to many....peace
I think there was quite a number of San Franciscans who knew Cindy Sheehan has the power in her, but they voted for Pelosi instead, because...
I'll tell you why that 70% voted Pelosi. San Francisco isn't as liberal as it looks. In fact, I'd say El Paso is far more liberal in attitude than San Francisco. There are true leftists and I'm not referring to them. The culprits are the professional yuppies acting smug and looking the other way. They pretend to be with us but when push comes to shove, they take a callous view and call it "practical". After Pelosi showing her true pro-war colors, I would challenge a single voter who voted Pelosi over Sheehan to come forth and tell me that Pelosi is anti-war. I know Pelosi is also a big recipient of military pork but the voters could have made this election much closer.
I'd suspect too that many of the professional yuppies are swimming in $.
One can live a great life in that lovely city, if one has the money. Except for social issues like gay rights -- which brands them as liberal -- why would they want to rock the boat. My 2 cents, anyway.
JWVerez, not to quibble over semantics, but I think that San Francisco IS as liberal as it looks-- using "liberal" in its pejorative sense of "moderate, orthodox liberal-lite partisan".
Even living on the other side of the continent, it became depressingly clear that Sheehan wasn't getting much traction in SF because Pelosi is a well-connected Establishment politician with a fatuous liberal following.
During Sheehan's ill-fated campaign, I remember going back and forth in CD comments threads with some knucklehead "realist" who rejected Sheehan as a hapless outsider-- an amateur who would never "deliver the goods" the way seasoned, experienced Pelosi could.
And the genteel liberal-lites were (are?) also captive to misguided identity politics; they were enthralled by Pelosi's "Historic" position as the first woman Speaker of the House, and were not about to withdraw their drooling heads from Pelosi's fundament and forsake her in order to support a true maverick like Sheehan-- even if she IS a woman of far more courage, wisdom, and integrity than the Gorgon Pelosi.
The liberal-lite "Heathers": Salon's Joan Walsh, the "Nation" women (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Katha Pollitt et al), and even Code Pink all turned their backs to Sheehan because Cindy rejected their consensus that she was best suited to remaining the Democrats' in-house "anti-war mom" mascot, devoting herself to cheerleading for Democratic "liberal" candidates-- like Pelosi!
Eff THAT noise, Cindy quite correctly said. And off the table she went, just like Bush's impeachment.
OS, thanks for the insight. I have heard about Code Pink's odd endorsement for Pelosi over Sheehan but I have decided to give CP a chance to make a new decision based on what Pelosi and Obama have done since Election 2008. At this point, I would be disgusted if nearly everyone who supported those two did so again this November and by November 2012. But then again, California is now further ruined thanks to CA foolishly voting YES to Prop 14. Here is the article by Ralph Nader on this.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/24-4
As one who resided, worked and fought the establishment in San Francisco for over three decades I do appreciate your correction and your accuracy.
Cindy is simply the best. She is a true American hero. Everyone who still gives a measure of crap should support her. She is not given the respect and credit she is due.
These fucking criminal wars need to end. Period. Right fucking now, no damn excuses. I wish everyone would wake up and take to the streets and scream it.
How many more people need to die?
Our so-called leaders are sick. So are we for allowing this.
We're afraid. Even you, Indyac, are afraid to use your real name. Why? What are you afraid of?
Even I. Why did I sign in as Lanman. My name is Lanny Cotler. I served in Vietnam '66/'67, was born on the Fourth of July, and nothing's going to change, only going to get worse, until we do what you suggest: take to the streets!
Cindy's right. Smedley Butler was right. You're right. War Is a Racket, a very profitable one, in terms of the money and power returned on investment in war.
I'm going to dedicate the rest of my life to helping Americans and others to wake up. One of the diseases inherent in democracy is somnolence, esp. if you're at the top of the materialistic heap. Was it Bush jr. or sr. or Cheney who said, "The American way of life is non-negotiable"?
That "way of life" was partly but greatly gained at the expense of the poor, other countries, and the mother of us all: the Earth. Cindy knows it's time to do the right thing...or lose it all. Cindy knows war is a racket.
We need to take it to the streets. In our own hometowns. If we don't, and soon, this country is going to continue down the road to a police state. From Plato, to Smedley Butler, to Cindy Sheehan -- they've seen the progression of democracy…to somnolence…to a police state.
Viva Cindy!
Beautiful and courageous post, Lanny Colter. Thanks.
Lanman? Were you at one time known, in another venue, as Starving Artist?
I don't think so, DKShaw. If so, it would have been pre-Internet. lcotlerATgmail.com to dig deeper.