Oct 17, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 9 segments
"War Is a Racket" by Smedley Butler is a powerful critique of the military-industrial complex and the motivations behind war. Butler, a decorated Marine Corps general, argues that war primarily serves…
CHAPTER I.
WAR IS A RACKET 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.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the 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 very many out of war a few people make huge fortunes in the world war one a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict at least twenty-one thousand 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 How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dugout? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights ducking shells and shrapnel and machine-gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle? 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 For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket.
Not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it.
Now that I see the international war-clouds gathering as they are today, I must face it and speak out.
Again they are choosing sides.
The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia was jugoslavia complicated matters jugoslavia and hungary long bitter enemies were almost at each other's throats italy was ready to jump in but france was waiting so was czechoslovakia all of them are looking ahead to war not the people not those who fight and pay and die only those who foment wars, and remain safely at home, to profit.
There are forty million men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.
Hell's bells! Are these forty million men being trained to be dancers? Not in Italy, to be sure.
premier mussolini knows what they are being trained for he at least is frank enough to speak out only the other day il duce in international conciliation the publication of the carnegie endowment for international peace said and above all fascism the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace war alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says.
His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war, anxious for it, apparently.
His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Yugoslavia showed that, and the hurried mobilization of his troops on the austrian border after the assassination of dulphus showed it too there are others in europe too whose sabre-rattling presages war sooner or later herr hitler with his rearming germany and his constant demands for more and more arms is an equal if not greater menace to peace France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.
CHAPTER I.
WAR IS A RACKET 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.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the 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 very many out of war a few people make huge fortunes in the world war one a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict at least twenty-one thousand 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 How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dugout? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights ducking shells and shrapnel and machine-gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle? 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 For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket.
Not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it.
Now that I see the international war-clouds gathering as they are today, I must face it and speak out.
Again they are choosing sides.
The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia was jugoslavia complicated matters jugoslavia and hungary long bitter enemies were almost at each other's throats italy was ready to jump in but france was waiting so was czechoslovakia all of them are looking ahead to war not the people not those who fight and pay and die only those who foment wars, and remain safely at home, to profit.
There are forty million men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.
Hell's bells! Are these forty million men being trained to be dancers? Not in Italy, to be sure.
premier mussolini knows what they are being trained for he at least is frank enough to speak out only the other day il duce in international conciliation the publication of the carnegie endowment for international peace said and above all fascism the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace war alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says.
His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war, anxious for it, apparently.
His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Yugoslavia showed that, and the hurried mobilization of his troops on the austrian border after the assassination of dulphus showed it too there are others in europe too whose sabre-rattling presages war sooner or later herr hitler with his rearming germany and his constant demands for more and more arms is an equal if not greater menace to peace France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.
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