Major General Smedley Darlington Butler Quote 

“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe,
as something that is not what it seems to the majority of 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 masses."

by:
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler
(1881-1940) Major General USMC, "Old Gimlet Eye'' and "Hell Devil Darling", most highly decorated military man from the pre-World War II era.
Source:
from a speech in 1933
Categories:
 
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Reader comments about this quote:
said well
 -- Mike, Norwalk		 
 -- Anonymous 
The qotes are good but I think there must be a mistake on the time frame: 1981-1940) Major General USMC . How can this be?
 -- Anonymous		 
Nearly all wars are at the behest of greedy swine's and religious nut jobs.
 -- RobertSRQ		 
Interesting that the Maj. Gen. shared these observations in the context of effectively leaving Hitler alone and staying out of WWII.
 -- John, TC, MN		 
All Wars of Empire fill this bill. From Lincoln's War, through The Spanish American War, WWI, 'Nam, and now Iraq.
 -- Shooterman, Beaumont		 
I like Smedley. What does it matter when the quote was made or who it applies to. It's value is how well it applies to the current era. This describes Iraq to a T
 -- Phil		 
The scam of govt and war is ancient, and we never learn the deception of the powerful. Read the following, forget the religious aspect and just see it as historical proof this scam was exposed 3000 yr ago and we STILL won't listen: 1 Sam 8:6-18 "But when (Israel) said, 'Give us a king [king, Congress, premier, president, call it what you will] to lead us,' (God told Samuel to) 'warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.' ...'This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. [Oh that Congress would be so kind as to take just a tenth!] Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."
 -- Paul, Union, WA		 
 -- jim, torrance calif 
Major General Smedley Darling Butler is a true American hero for speaking out against imperialistic wars. I believe we will hear from a few more of his contemporaries as further light is shed upon the current wars in the Middle East waged, quite frankly, for profit and power, pure and simple.
 -- E Archer, NYC		 
The quote by Smedley Butler was a good one... for its day. Now I believe Major General Butler would have a different take on the situation at hand. You see in the 1930's the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were viewed as a sort of barrier. This was a time when warring countries wore uniforms and the battling armies generally conducted themselves along a relatively firm set of rules. Today, when terrorists are slipping unseen across both our southern and northern borders, without uniforms, without ethics and without rules, things are much, much different. Today, the world is a whole lot smaller than it used to be. If you pay attention to the news just today, there was a Muslim extremist that began an Al-Qaeda-like terrorist camp in the State of Oregon. Yes, Major General Butler would see the massive changes in warfare and he would have changed some of his beliefs if he was aware of modern enemy tactics. There are literally thousands upon thousands of terrorists within U.S. borders as I type this message. They are training and waiting. I'm not being an ignorant fear-monger. I have friends in national intelligence who pass things to me once in a while. The core of these messages, I will not reveal to anyone. All I'm saying is that Iran, Syria and North Korea and cooking something in the kitchen and it stinks. Marc www.SaveTheGuns.com
 -- www.SaveTheGuns.com, Maine		 
Idiotic. If someone wants to fight with you you are in a fight. Like it or not, if you put your head in the sand you are still in a fight. If you run you are still in a fight. We could not have escaped WW2 any more than we could escape a war with radical Islam. Quote sounds good if you don't think about it, but does not apply to the victim of the aggressor.
 -- warren, olathe ks		 
General Butler also said, "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." Racket is the correct term because the elite profits from all wars, while the middle class does most of the fighting, dieing, and living on with a disabled body.
 -- barry, tallahassee		 
So then The good General Butler would approve of our involvment in ww2 and war on terror.
 -- warren, olathe		 
Good quote Paul but God meant King when he said King. You can't substitute other terms in its place. In other words don’t put words in god’s mouth. That quote from the bible pertained to the inevitable creation of a tyrant when one person is given ultimate power. It in no way can be twisted to mean any thing else. In our time this would be applicable to Saddam Hussein, Hitler, Stalin, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Absolute power always leads to absolute corruption.
 -- warren, olathe		 
Very good piece. I think the racket part applies to WWII and the alleged War on Terror. The US was (and still is in those areas) very involved in both situations from an imperial perspective to include military actions long before the official conflict start dates. We are not the innocent bystander who was assulted. We are a dishonest participant. To the comment about warfare having changed, the changes listed I disagree. War has always included non uniformed border crossings to cause death and destruction of the opposition and the oceans have never been a barrier except to the naive. Both the war for secesssion from Britain and the war of 1812 clearly demonstrate that. The only change is the same change for all of society, things happen faster so both you and your opponent have less reaction time.
 -- Ernie, Madison		 
It's actually Smedley Darlington Butler.
 -- Anonymous		 
When I went to Nam it only took me a couple days to figure out that the whole thing was a racket and a business paid for by the blood of the GI's who fought that war. Look at Iraq today and see how many government sycophants are making money from Halburton and Blackwater. War is a scam pure and simple.
 -- Jeff, Mountlake Terrace, WA		 
It took me a quite a few more days than Jeff to figure out the same thing about Nam. Iraq was clear before it ever started, but of course I'm long past 18 years old now.
 -- baad, Atlanta, GA		 
Smedley Butler seems to have been proud of his recantation after spending 30 years in the service of big business. He shouldn't be. Without him, and his kind, the big bosses wouldn't be able to enforce their will on anyone. How many innocent people did he kill during those 30 years? He doesn't seem to have been bothered by this aspect of his career at all. There is no denying that the man had courage; but then, most career murderers have courage. It's in the nature of their job choice.
 -- john lilbourne, new york		 
If someone wants to fight you, don't be surprised if big business is behind it all,..big money to be made in wars. Let's not be naive to the profit of evil.
 -- phil, old berlin		 
OBAMA IS THE BIGGEST SCAM LIAR AND COMMUNIST PIMP THERE EVERV WAS,SCUM OF AN UMAMERICAN SOCIAIST,BASTARD,NARICIST.
 -- Anonymous		 
Bush and his whole administration made a ton of money off their "made" war.
 -- Anonymous		 
Your friends in Intelligence would not be passing on anything pertinent...or true for that matter. Let me guess, do they work for ACME? Are they furniture movers or perhaps furniture salesmen. The CIA and all of it's associates are so many that each tiny cell has no idea what is actually going on, those terrorists they told you about are themselves. Have you read the latest intelligence? Only one hundred terrorists in Afganistan, we are there for opium and a pipeline and to hold off the world from another oil currency.
 -- Wiley Coyote, Jackson California		 
All the major wars of the 20th century have been contrived rackets. The details of Smedley's public disdain for War was pushed to the boiling point when he was sequestered by a group of elite US businessmen to implement a military coup against FDR. He apparently testified to this in a senate hearing. Look it up on wikipedia. It's 2009, it's about time everyone with a working brain understand that all major conflicts are planned. It is called the theatre of war for a reason.
 -- Cory, NY		 
It seems no one of importance understands this quote.
 -- updoc, Des Plaines		 
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