4.0 

War Is a Racket

By Smedley Darlington Butler & Jesse Ventura
War Is a Racket by Smedley Darlington Butler & Jesse Ventura digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired US Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley Darlington Butler. In these works, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. After his retirement from the Marine Corps, Gen. Butler made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech, “War Is a Racket.” The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version that was published in 1935, now republished with a foreword by former governor of Minnesota and New York Times bestselling author Jesse Ventura.

Jesse Ventura reviews Major General Butler’s original writings and brings them up to date, relating them to our current political climate. Butler was a visionary in his day, and Ventura works to show how right he was and how wrong our current democracy is. Read for the first time Butler’s words with Ventura’s witty, yet insightful spin on this relevant work that will appeal not only to military historians, but also to those interested in the state of our country and the entire world.

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War Is a Racket Reviews

4.0
Red Angry Face“The fact that spending 34 years doing exactly what he is in this book condemning, gives him a somewhat rare insight and in my opinion, gives his argument more validity. Knowing that he testified under oath against really powerful people, could be held as evidence that he truly believed in what he was preaching. It’s heartbreaking, to know that nothing came of it. That somebody like him can provide valid proof of irreparable harm and nothing happens. It will dismissed. It will turn into intellectual fodder, on purpose. It’s right there. He mentions taxation, redistribution of wealth but people only hear isolationism and they’re like but imagine Europe in the hands of Nazi Germany. I don’t see what would be different. It’s a saviourism fantasy, that the US “saved” Europe from a totalitarian regime. It’s all a bunch of crap, WWI profiteering was proven by Senate. Clearly you can spend a century on a fantasy debate of what would have happened had the States not gone to war. The truth is that nothing would have changed with that one singular act, because clearly, as long as the people in power profit from it, they will make sure there’s enough brainwashed zombies spewing out their propaganda. It’s not about nazism, it’s not about peace in the Middle East, it’s not about freedom or safety. It’s about money. Apparently, the Lockheed Martin CEO called the Hormuz conflict "a golden opportunity" on an earnings call. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. Ninety years later. This is the same toxic murderous tree, continuing to bear toxic murderous fruit. Defence stocks are rising in real time. His critique has been proved right over and over and it changes nothing. Is the problem the argument? The delivery, the messenger? What happens to a valid argument screamed from the tops of a structure that was built to be proofed against reason? I’m glad I read this book, because it confirms to me that the answers are already printed, the logic is already there. What is missing is us gradually building decentralised structures, structures that are resistant to being co-opted. The revolution, the legislation, taxation and war….they’re not the big fight. We win this in the every day, we win this by reclaiming our bodies and minds. By knowing that as small as our individual role might be, one vote, one aid, one book, is a grain of sand.”
“I red this for my world empires class and it was very interesting. I wish I could say I was shocked that we go to war because it’s profitable and only the few benefits from war. While the solders suffer the most. The part where it says that they are told that they would get payed a lot but then they don’t make me upset. How that literally after the risked there life’s they couldn’t find jobs and would by bonds meaning they helped pay the debt but also with there sacrifices. The most shocking thing was that 21,000 billionaires and millionaires arises after ww1 that makes me sick that these people profited of the sacrifices of solders who don’t get any benefits from war.”

About Smedley Darlington Butler

Jesse Ventura is the former independent governor of Minnesota. He is also a former US Navy frogman, a professional wrestler, a movie actor, a visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including American Conspiracies, 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read, and Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me! He was the host and executive producer of truTV’s Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, which won the Stony Award from High Times magazine in 2010. He was also the host of the political talk show Off The Grid, which aired on RT America and online at Ora.tv. He has a reputation as a rebel and a freethinker, and he has no qualms about questioning authority. He spends half the year in Baja, Mexico and the other half in his home state of Minnesota.

Jesse Ventura

Jesse Ventura is the former independent governor of Minnesota. He is also a former US Navy frogman, a professional wrestler, a movie actor, a visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including American Conspiracies, 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read, and Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me! He was the host and executive producer of truTV’s Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, which won the Stony Award from High Times magazine in 2010. He was also the host of the political talk show Off The Grid, which aired on RT America and online at Ora.tv. He has a reputation as a rebel and a freethinker, and he has no qualms about questioning authority. He spends half the year in Baja, Mexico and the other half in his home state of Minnesota.

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