Smedley Butler Wasn’t Kidding, by David Swanson

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
February 4, 2022

Smedley Butler is generally left out of U.S. history. If you bring up a guy who prevented a Wall Street coup against FDR, you do real damage to the tale of peaceful respect for government from the beginning of time up through January 6, 2021. If you mention the scandal that erupted when he recounted how Mussolini had run over a little girl with his car, it’s hard to leave out the U.S. government’s friendly relations with Mussolini.

As Long as Capitalism Exists, The Threat of Fascism Exists, by Pete Dolack

Image by Ivan Radic via Flickr

by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Jan. 10, 2022
January 11, 2022

Six years is an eternity in politics. Consider what was common opinion at the start of 2016: That changing demographics in the United States favored the Democratic Party; it would soon be impossible for Republicans to win a national election unless they sharply changed from their primary strategy of sending dog whistles to their base of conservative white people, a dwindling percentage of the U.S. population.

Russiagate is not Pearl Harbor, 9/11 was not Pearl Harbor, and Pearl Harbor was not Pearl Harbor by David Swanson

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
July 17, 2018

The unproven allegation that the Russian government helped us find out how the DNC was screwing Bernie Sanders with his pants on is not actually a moral, legal, or practical reason to launch a spree of mass-killing of innocents, which is what every war since WWII has been.

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Abby Martin: The Rise of History’s Biggest Empire

Image by Josh Bartok via Flickr

Dandelion Salad
Originally posted Sept. 6, 2015

with Abby Martin

Empire Files on Sep 5, 2015

Abby Martin debuts teleSUR’s The Empire Files exploring the U.S. Empire, its rise to world hegemony and its impact on people and the planet.

Smedley Butler: I Was A Racketeer, A Gangster For Capitalism

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

Sent to Dandelion Salad by The Anti-Social Socialist

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” — Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket, Round Table Press (1935)

War Is A Racket By Major General Smedley Butler

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

Dandelion Salad
Originally published January 16, 2011

numoleen on March 11, 2009

War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This anti-war speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree. To Hell with war.

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.

War Is A Racket – A Song by Ed Ciaccio

by Ed Ciaccio
Dandelion Salad
Featured Writer
April 18, 2012

Image by tsweden via Flickr

“War is a racket,” warned the retired Marine,
Veteran of wars, sick of what he’d seen.
Planned and ordered by the callous and mean,
It’s brutal and savage, and truly obscene.

“A gangster for capitalism” is what he became,
In his own words, years later, after his fame,
The book “War Is A Racket”, above his name,
Told how he was used in that deadly greed game.

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:

War is a Racket by Smedley Butler

Dandelion Salad

A picture of a double medal of honor recipient. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

numoleen | March 11, 2009

War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This anti-war speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree. To Hell with war.

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.”