War Is a Racket (Smedley Butler song)
by Donald A. Smith, PhD
Using words written by Major General Smedley Butler as lyrics, and Suno.com for the music, I created this Broadway-style song about war being a racket.
War is a racket. It always has been. A few profit - and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war. [Chorus] War is a racket. It always has been. A few profit - and the many pay. We must take the profit out of war. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during that time, 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 for capitalism. [Chorus] War is a racket. It always has been. A few profit - and the many pay. We must take the profit out of war. 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. [Chorus] War is a racket. It always has been. A few profit - and the many pay. We must take the profit out of war. 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. [Chorus] War is a racket. It always has been. A few profit - and the many pay. We must take the profit out of war. |
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Another version:
Quoting the Wikiquote entry about Smedley Butler:
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "Maverick Marine", was a senior United States Marine Corps officer who fought in the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution and World War I. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, Central America, the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. Butler was, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.
All images created by me using Ideogram.ai
Senior U.S. diplomats, journalists, academics and Secretaries of Defense say:
The U.S. provoked Russia in Ukraine
U.S. hypocrisy concerning the war in Ukraine is absolutely stunning, given that it invaded and bombed countries all over the world (e.g., Iraq) for flimsy reasons, often allying with Muslim extremists (e.g., Afghanistan in 80s, Serbia, Libya, and Syria). The U.S. occupies 1/3 of Syria (the parts with oil), with help from its proxy army, the Syrian Defense Forces. Russia's invasion was along its borders, in response to CIA and NATO meddling in a country with deep historical, linguistic, and cultural ties to Russia. U.S. meddling included "engineering" the 2014 coup, according to Chas. W. Freeman, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Lifetime Director of the Atlantic Council. The U.S. also armed far-right militias that were attacking Russian speakers in the east. Before the 2022 invasion, the militias increased their bombings. Crimea had voted multiple times for closer ties to Russia. The U.S. exploited divisions in Ukraine between pro-Western and pro-Russian provinces and groups to provoke the war. RAND Corporation recommended arming Ukraine as the best way to "weaken and overextend" Russia and predicted it would result in a war. The New Yorker reported that the CIA and NSA engaged in a broad "effort, around the time of the invasion, to close off many 'sources related to Russia/Ukraine matters.'"
Jack Matlock (former U.S. Ambassador to the USSR under Ronald Reagan) said in a 2024 interview: "Why don’t we understand that trying to remove Ukraine from Russian influence and put military bases there would be, in their case, absolutely unacceptable and worthy of defense?" Matlock said the U.S. backed the 2014 coup, and "Obviously, to any Russian leader, not just Vladimir Putin, that would have been an absolutely impossible, hostile act, which they had to react to. And in particular, they were not going to lose their naval base in Crimea." Finally, Matlock said the Ukrainians are "dominated in their thinking by neo-Nazis — we tend to ignore that, or when Putin points it out, we say he’s lying. He’s not lying."
Other music:
America the Battleful (Oh Beautiful for Endless Wars!)
We are Spending Two Trillion Dollars on Weapons That Must Never Be Used
We Can't Compete with China, So Let's Provoke a War
Thomas Merton's Prayer for Peace
Rock Opera about U.S. Militarism, Part One
The Unholy Land has Genocide
Requiem for Victims of U.S. Wars
Bending Over for Dearest Uncle Sam
Endless War Blues
The-Endless War Blues (different version)
Windy City Protests -- from Vietnam in '68 to Gaza in '24
No More Blood For Their Endless War: an antiwar folk song made with AI
Machinery of Death (death metal song)
No More Stupid Wars!
Lesser of Two Evils Blues
The-Lesser of Two Evils Blues (longer, different version)
Eisenhower warns about the Military-Industrial Complex
Eisenhower Warns about U.S. Militarism
War is a Racket (Smedley Butler Song)
and Love Song by the U.S. Military Gospel Choir.