Edward Snowden and Latin America Expose Washington’s Impotence in a Changing World by Finian Cunningham

Image by Infidelic via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
July 17, 2013

One of America’s genuine heroes, Major General Smedley D Butler revealed in his memoirs the true, abhorrent nature of Washington’s foreign policy. Butler had led countless military operations in Central America and the Caribbean as a US Marines Corp commander in the era of “gunboat diplomacy” during the early 1900s. Years after his retirement, he spoke out candidly and ruefully of his highly decorated military service in a book entitled War is a Racket. Here is how Butler characterized with unsparing words his service for country in 1935, five years before his death:

Honoring Mercenaries for the U.S. Corporate State by Ed Ciaccio

by Ed Ciaccio
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 23, 2013

Image by tsweden via Flickr

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Smedley, Ike and Me: Anyone Listening, America? by Philip A. Farruggio

by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
May 19, 2012

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

In 1935, a book was published, War Is a Racket , by retired Marine General Smedley Butler. In this brief book Butler embellishes his belief that our nation’s foreign policy was controlled and manipulated by private corporate interests… all in the name of greed. Wars, invasions and occupations by our military, according to General Butler, were all predicated on the desire for profit by corporations. He himself called his past life as a Marine general as being a gangster for these private industrial interests. He used WW1 as an example of who made the profits for our military being sent ‘Over there’. Apparently, most of our American public at that time could not care less for what Smedley Butler was selling.

Converts To Truth… And Love by Philip A. Farruggio

by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
January 23, 2011

This year, 2011, we all can sense that a storm is brewing, environmentally, economically and politically. We have an empire called Pax Americana (an oxymoron is there ever was one) that is candidly quite near its end. Oh, the few thousand people who control America’s business, military and politics are still holding out for greater expansion of this dying killer weed in the garden Earth. After over a century of strangling most of the world, Pax Americana is quickly running out of steam, with bankrupt cities whose citizenry is lost in the hypnotic trance of consumerism, false patriotism and discriminations of all sorts. Propaganda and jingoism are doing their best to keep the Pandora’s Box of truth from popping open. Yet, we have seen many converts to this truth that felt a sincere love of humanity which needed expression. Here are a few examples:

Matt Taibbi and David Swanson interviewed by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
December 5, 2010

Now! Click here to listen or download Cindy’s interview with Matt ‘maximum gonzo’ Taibbi and David Swanson, author of War is a Lie, the new blockbuster revelation masterpiece.  The discussion moves on, through the current fake mortgage crisis.  Matt Taibbi has much published material in Rolling Stone, and knows what he’s talking about.  David Swanson is a well established activist with a long history in the peace movement.  He contributes his expert insight here, using his expertise to discuss the lies behind all wars.

War is Still a Racket by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
May 9, 2010

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.

Major General Smedley Butler

For this Mother’s Day, I am not going to write about Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day proclamation and how Mother’s Day is a “Day for Peace.”