Our man Smedley............

[BlueStreak]

Quote from Smedley D. Butler, Major General, USMC, Two Time Medal of Honor Winner, from his anti-war classic 'WAR IS A RACKET' :

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and 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 benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might 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.”

So, when Smedly threw his monkey wrench into the Fascist corporate machines assassination attempt against FDR....To your mind, was this a good thing? Or, since some of you seem to have a hatred for FDR and his policies, should he have stood aside?

I think the man had a guilty conscience and ultimately redeemed himself with an heroic act, preserving to some degree, freedom and democracy for a few more decades. Not that it really changed our foreign policies all that much, unfortunately.

Dave