The Wenatchee World ran an editorial from Maj. JEffery S. Tontini an
active duty marine dude who graduated from wenatchee high school in
1986 about the liberation of iraq, he's "defending" us, even though a
friend of his didn't fly the flag because she didn't want people to
think she supported the rape and pillage of Iraq, he's "defending" her
too.
I don't want his defense of me, but it's part of the package deal - I
get to obey the provisions of the patriot act, the US tortures people
in secret prisons around the planet, that's the social contract. Fair
enough, but I'm getting away from the best part of the piece:
"I am not saying lives are INDISPENSIBLE (emphasis added). In fact,
just the opposite. Lives are precious."
I'm not saying Tontini is disassembling. I'm just saying he's stupid.
And now to wash the bad taste out of my mouth, a few words from a
smart marine (not oxymoronic, there have been a couple):
Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley
Butler, USMC.
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.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.
If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble
with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here,
then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the
flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy
investment of the bankers. 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.
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.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say,
a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al
Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in
three districts. I operated on three continents.
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