Memorial Day - Do we really care?

Each year, on the last Monday in May the nation "observes" Memorial Day. That in itself is a joke. Probably fewer than 10% of Americans do ANYTHING whatsoever to honor the memory of the hundreds of thousands who died to give us one of our beloved three-day weekends.

For many years, our culture has become absorbed in self-pleasure, materialism, and all that goes with it.

So, it's really no surprise that national holidays like Memorial Day and Veterans Day are nothing more than three day vacations for most of us.

Unless, of course you are one of the unfortunate ones who lost a father or mother, or son or daughter, or brother or sister, or uncle or aunt, or a close friend.

I realize that unless you have had a direct loss as the result of war, it's probably not a big deal. IF any of this gives you even the slightest twinge of guilt about ignoring this day meant to honor those who have served and given their lives for this country, then it's not too late.

For the past three years, like many Americans, I have witnessed the gut wrenching unnecessary war kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians and nearly 3,000 of our own military people.

Most of the public, in my opinion, has gone about it's daily life oblivious to the true underlying reasons for this needless war.

I have never believed it was about "democracy" or fighting a "war on terror". A war on terror, think about that ridiculous statement on it's own. Why not launch an all-out war on dictatorship, or a war on crime (oh wait, we did that)...the point is, any rational person realizes that you can't literally declare war on terror as if it were contained within a specific nation or regime.

Terror is a tactic...and America ought to know, because we are probably the most skilled masters of its use. Through the CIA and other covert operatives, terrorist acts (white washed as, "missions" to promote democracy) have left mountains of dead bodies all over the globe, from Africa to South America.

What is the real motive for those who have, AND CONTINUE to kill "enemies" and our own young soldiers in the name of Democracy?

As I said, if you have even the slightest twinge of guilt for having never taken the time to consider the sacrifice of our sons and daughters, please at least read and thoughtfully consider what I'm about to share with you.

I believe that thoughtful consideration of this man's words will cause you to take a more critical look at what is currently happening to our young men and women in uniform, and hopefully contribute to a growing awareness that this war, like many other wars and "missions" are not being carried out for the reasons we have been given.

Please take a few minutes to ponder what I've put together on the question:

"Why do we wage war?"

In doing so, I want to introduce a truly great American military leader who had the courage to speak out against American Corporations who profit from war.

At the end of this, you may be surprised....
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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. . . .

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.

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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This was written in 1933 by Smedley Darlington Butler, Major General - United States Marine Corps [Retired] from a speech he made before Congress entitled, "War is a racket!" http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

Butler made these conclusions in his book War is a Racket:

* We must take the profit out of war.
* We must permit the youth..., who would bear arms, to decide whether or
not there should be war.
* We must limit our military to defense purposes....


DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PLOT
TO USE OUR OWN MILITARY TO OVERTHROW FDR? (I didn't)

Maj. Gen Butler also addressed Congress in 1934 to testify about a plot by certain corporations (such as DuPont!) to stage a military coup against President Rooselvelt!

You might wonder as I did, why this is not a well-known historical event...the answer, according to the following resource has some hauntingly familiar facts about how information was supressed in our nation (as it is now!)

This link gives some chilling insight to the story of the plot against FDR. (another example of how our history is whitewashed by excluding events that tarnish the idealistic image of America) http://liberalslikechrist.org/about/FDRcoup.html

"In the summer of 1933, shortly after Roosevelt's 'First 100 Days,' America's richest businessmen were in a panic. It was clear that Roosevelt intended to conduct a massive redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. Roosevelt had to be stopped at all costs.

The answer was a military coup, along the lines of the recently successful coups of their friends, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. It was to be secretly financed and organized by leading officers of the Morgan and Du Pont empires. "

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Several scenarios have been proposed in explaining why the affair did not become a cause celebre, among which are:

* The story was an embarrassment to people of influence, and it was best to sweep it under the rug as quickly as possible.

* In 1934, newspapers were controlled by a relatively small elite — according to then Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes, 82% of all dailies had monopolies in their communities. Proponents of the theory thus suggest that the media downplayed Butler's testimony based on the interests of their advertisers and owners.

* Some of Roosevelt's advisors were in on the plot, and downplayed it when it was exposed to prevent their dirty laundry from being aired in public.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot


Major General Butler's response when asked to participate in this act of treason was:

"My interest is, my one hobby is, maintaining a democracy. If you get these 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home ..."

The attempted fascist coup of the 1930s
Source: http://www.greens.org/s-r/35/35-16.html

An attempt at instituting fascism in the United States would not be without precedent.
In Roosevelt’s first year as president, a group of bankers and industrialists, backed by financing from DuPont, General Motors and Morgan Bank, hatched a scheme to institute fascism.

Wall Street bond salesman Gerald McGuire approached retired Marine general Smedley Butler with an offer for him to be the fascist leader and deliver an ultimatum to Roosevelt to either take orders from businessmen or be forced from office by an army of 500,000 veterans.

Their arms were to be supplied by Remington, a DuPont subsidiary. Butler declined, informed Roosevelt and the plan was defused by leaking it to the press.

No one was punished.
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Ok, so what can we do about our situation today?

I believe the only way that we can turn this country around is through the collective will of the people. That can only be achieved through education which will lead to action.

Please share this post with others and begin taking the time to find out what is really going on in America. We owe it to ourselves and especially to our children and grandchildren!

That is one way to honor the memory of those who gave up everything for the belief that their fellow Americans would be truly free...