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War Is Caused By Capitalism
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Here is the proof that war is caused by capitalism here is a statment by retired US marine general Smedly Butler in the 1930s:
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.
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.
Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.
Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.
Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.
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.
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.
Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.
Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.
Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.
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Comments
stealgate is a twat
QED
www.marxist.com
Its about the world cup you fucking clown <IMG SRC="rolleyes.gif" border="0" ALT="icon"> but yeah to hell with it, burn the union jack, and throw all our money at anyone and everyone - in fact as you say lets hand it out to the third world so they can buy yet more tanks, guns and fucking palaces - you my boy are stuck in a daydream, its about time you snapped out of it and took a long hard look at reality. Its a fucking cheek you say you intend to stand in solidarity with third world
workers they'd spit at you, lying in your bed all day, whilst they get off there arses and work dam hard for a living you just sit around on your arse saying its a shame.
Perhaps if this state didn't spend so much money feeding you, it could free up a little cash for those who actually need it <IMG SRC="mad.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
Get a job you scrounging little slob <IMG SRC="mad.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
America and Britain also devasted Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War killing 200,000 Iraqis most of them civilians who died in bombing raids! Since the end of the Gulf War over 1.5 million Iraqis have died because of economic sanctions!
America and Britain have also devasted Afghanistan and killed and injured thousands and thousands of Afgan civilians and made thousands more homeless from bombing raids! They have also littered Afghanistan with cluster bombs many of which have not exploded and are acting like land mines killing and maiming hundreds of Afghans many of them children!
StopWar.Org.UK
[ 27-03-2002: Message edited by: stealgate ]
Not that Saddam Hussain's just a complete nutter, possibly capable of killing millions maybe billions
Not that we should just leave the terrorist organisations to run riot through afghanistan before the next plane/bomb hits us or the usa <IMG SRC="wink.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
the world isn't a fair place mate, neither on an individual level or an international level - get used to it.
Hes been spouting the same shit for months and months and it never changes. Hes been banned from U75 and many there thought he was a total dick..
Just ignore or insult him..Dont give him reason to do more cut and paste jobs.
Well said.
that settles it - I hate Stealgate. Dude its not facist to want and love your countries identity. The US and Britan are 2 of the few countries maintaining order in the world - without us the world is fucked and you are well aware of this.
Knock it off with the workers of the worl unite shit - you know damn well that in the past attempts at Socialism, the governments did not give a rats ass about the workers - I suspect the same is true of you.
And finally, I invite you to come to the US and burn the stars and stripes - come on, I dare ya punk!
Where the hell those workers claim their benefits, pensions, compensation, and to whom they rely to when they go on strike, you idiot!
For a start America is the greatest threat to world peace! America armed and trained the viscous Contra terrorists in the 1980s who conducted a reiegn of terror in Nicaragua in the 1980s in their attempt to overthrow the left wing Sandanista government. The Contra tortured and murdered tens of thousands of villagers in Nicaragua.
America also backed and trained death squads in El Salvador, Guatamala and Honduras!
American imposed sanctions on Iraq have also killed 1.5 million Iraqis since the end of the Gulf War! During the Gulf War America and Britain killed 200,000 Iraqis including a retreating Iraq army on the road to Basra which was burned to death after being ambushed by American warplane!
It was also America and Britain that funded and trained al Quaeda and Osama Bin Laden in the 1980s as a weapon against both the left wing goveernment of Afghanistan and the Soviets when it turned a blind eye to their heroin trafficking to the west and their brutality to the Afghan people!
America arms the terrorist state of Israel which has for over 50 years been terrorising the Palestinians forcing hundreds of thousands to flee as refugees and bombing Palestinian towns and shooting thousands of Palestinian civilians armed only with rocks and sniping at civilians going about their everyday lives!
The British arms trade is also fueling dozens of wars around the world. Also the recent war against Afghanistan has devastated that country destroying thousands of ordinary Afghans homes and leaving the country in a state of chaos fought over by rival war lords and littered with thousands of deadly cluster bombs which are killing and maiming thousands of people!
Read the Socialist Worker a paper that tells you the facts!
Even if trade restrictions were lifted, do you really think Hussein would allow his people to eat? Iff they were well they could overthrow him. Youre living in a fucking fantasy land, the ball is in Husseins court not ours.
Piss off, youre a socialist cunt who is too stupid to read the Socialist Worker and understand it. You just do as youre told, thats how Hitler and Stalin got to power.
Tosspiece.
You ever stopped to think that they may have been retreating in order to reinforce their lines further back...? Now, I'm no soldier but I'm not an idiot. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "strategic withdrawl" a military term?
Al-quaeda wasn't in existence you fuckwit, it is a terrorist organisation created after the gulf war in response to America's occupation of the Saudi oilfields.
ARMED ONLY WITH ROCKS?!?!?!? You're a dumbass. So the terrorist who walked onto a bus and blew it apart did it with rocks? The man who walked into a shopping centre, shredding and injuring 100's with nails, it was actually a sharp rock?
The woman who walked into a shop with a pram crammed full of explosives...let me guess? A rock?
And when Israel was invaded in the 1950's, they were attacked with rocks? Hmm...yes.
If you knew anything, you would know that China and Russia are the biggest suppliers and exporters of arms worldwide. Hands up those who know the most prolific automatic weapon available around the world. Don't know? The AK-74 Kalashnikov. Doesn't sound very British to me, how about to you...?
You seem to have forgotten that the majority of injuries from unexploded ordanance are caused by weapons left over from the Russian occupation. I don't recall our armies using minefields for about hmmmmm 60 years.
Cluster bombs are dropped only on military targets such as runways. They are of no use on hardened targets such as bunkers, buildings and tanks. But then of course, you knowledge of military hardware extends as far as the dreaded 3-point rock.
I'm sorry Balddog this moron appears to have trapped me, and despite your warnings, i find myself getting annoyed <IMG SRC="mad.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
What a prize prick
Stealgate, you have convinced me!
Only through your radical and inspiring ideas could such skill in copy and pasting have been achieved. Maybe one day you'll even learn to read what you post and (I know this is optimistic) understand it!
I'm off to read a load of bullshit on some website and then base my entire life around it, without fully understanding the true meaning and possible consequences behind what I read!!
<IMG SRC="rolleyes.gif" border="0" ALT="icon"> <IMG SRC="tongue.gif" border="0" ALT="icon"> <IMG SRC="rolleyes.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
<IMG SRC="confused.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
Minor point, but there are still many times more AK-47's (7.62x39) in use than AK-74's (5.45x39.5). And btw, even Pakistan builds knock-offs.
But the gist of your point is well taken... Russia and China have given away armament freely, while US and Britain more frequently sell theirs.
[ 28-03-2002: Message edited by: Thanatos...AGAIN ]
Cluster bombs are causing injuries in Afghanistan! When they were dropped they spread over a vast area including fields that are used for growing crops. There have so far been thousands of casualities from cluster bombs!
Britain and America sell arms to Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia Columbia and even sold arms to Iraq before the gulf war! All oppresive countries. Britian and America continued to sell arms to Indonesia after its invasion of East Timor in 1975 in which it killed 200,000 East Timorese! Turkey has also been persecuting the Kurds since 1974 forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes as refugees and destroying thousands of Kurdish villages! Yet Turkey is still sold arms by the west and is still a member of NATO!
America only wants to overthrow Saddam Hussein because it has oil interests in the middle east! At the time of the Gulf War an American politican said "If Kuwait grew carrots then we wouldn't give a damn about the invasion!". The Gulf War of 1991 was met by the biggest anti-war demonstrations since the Vietnam war when tens of thousands marched against the war in both America and Britain marched against the war!
SRead Socialist Worker the alternative to the capitalist press.
Pathetic sycophants always say that they will get it right thistime, that every other instance of communism was a fuck-up... <IMG SRC="rolleyes.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
If you give the scum another chance theyll do it RIGHT this time! And the world will be happy, and millions of people wont die every day choking on CocaCola. And Americans will all die becuase theyre the work of Satan.
<IMG SRC="rolleyes.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
Read SocialistArseholes for the REAL truth every week! Only 50p (or £1 for Socialists)
Nice exerpt, but this is about WWI and the comeing of WWII here is a link to the whole article by BGEN Smedley D. Butler.
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Other instances of communism being established were not even communism to start with they were Stalinist state capitalist regimes which were established in most so called communist countries.
Also when the left wing Sandanistas siezed power in Nicaragua in 1979 great improvements were made to the lives of the people living there. This was inspite of the government having to fight a war against the US backed Contra terrorists and having a US imposed trade embargo imposed on the country!
Socialist Worker the alternative to the capitalist press.
I don't think that a system whereby the workers democratically control the means of production and plan production for need not profit ie communism will break down as when it is in place no one will want to go back to capitalism where they are exploited by the bosses and forced to work long hours to make profits for the rich!
Britain only sells arms to countries with legitemate, democratically elected governments. We sold arms to Iraq before the gulf war because:
1)they had a democratic government
2)they needed help in defending themselves from Iran.
Turkey...they manufacture their own equipment, and have no need for our weaponry. The Israelis use M16's, a weapon that is manufactured by many different companies and is used because it accepts the standard NATO 7.62mm round.
You're also missing a big thing, we all know that the Gulf war was about oil. But did those people protesting against the war have any idea of what would happen if Saddam controlled the oil, or destroyed it? Of course not, because you and your ideological brethren are fuckwits who can't see the bigger picture.
You fail to address one of my main points, they don't call oil "black gold" for nothing. Western society needs it to survive. But all you care about is some peasant Afghan farmer who might be idiotic enough to pick up a bomb that has landed on a runway.
Our military don't drop cluster bombs on civilian targets. If we were going to bother wasting munitions killing civvies then we'd just drop a nuke. Cluster bombs are only used on large infantry, tank and runway formations.
7.62N is 7.62x51, used in M-14, M-60, 240G, etc. Similar to civilian .308.
M-16 uses 5.56x45, similar to civilian .223.
HUGE difference between 7.62x51 and 5.56x45! <IMG SRC="eek.gif" border="0" ALT="icon">
And communism is the quickest way to turn a country which is not simply self-sufficient, but exporting product, into a starving horde dependent upon others to feed them because of the inherent inefficiency of the wetdream...