WAR is a racket. It always has been.

Not much has changed in the last 100 years.

The lies and propaganda come faster and in Hi Def 24/7. Our weapons are more leathal and destructive to life. The world we live in is on the brink of cataclism that only an insignificant few seem to notice and all the while distractions reign supreme and consume our energy and creativity.

Bickering among those who should know better stain us all while truth is driven down the rabbit hole before the cacophony of bleating 'isms'

The lies and distortions of those who would lead and act on our behalf should be outed and displayed before the public in an honest and considered manner. We need to employ a little empathy for other points of view and respond honestly in context, not to some perceived sleight or injury.

Each step is a choice and each choice has consequences for our future or not...



WAR is a racket. It always has been.

"It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives...

In the World War a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows...

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill...

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations...

...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."

http://members.tripod.com/rationalrevolution0/war/major_general_smedley_butler_usm.htm