Great post, coug. Love that name, Smedley Darlington Butler. War profiteers were - at the time of his writing - and continue to be a cancer on the back of humanity. Safe in the comfort of their homes, they send others to fight these wars. Adding insult to injury they charge the American public egregious sums in the form of taxes. It was that fool, Woodrow Wilson who sold out the US to the unconstitutional Federal Reserve that ultimately brought about US involvement in WWI and future wars. WWI had been in the planning stages since the early 1900s, and everything necessary to guarantee a world war was in place, except for the lynchpin -United States. Once the Federal REserve was established - December 1913 - the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was arranged June 1914 to precipitate the war.
The war profiteers' boundless greed caused major changes in payment and recruitment of soldiers, as Smedley goes on to write: Up to and including the Spanish-American War, we had a prize system, and soldiers and sailors fought for money. During the Civil War they were paid bonuses, in many instances, before they went into service. The government, or states, paid as high as $1,200 for an enlistment. In the Spanish-American War they gave prize money. When we captured any vessels, the soldiers all got their share – at least, they were supposed to. Then it was found that we could reduce the cost of wars by taking all the prize money and keeping it, but conscripting [drafting] the soldier anyway. Then soldiers couldn't bargain for their labor, Everyone else could bargain, but the soldier couldn't.
Napoleon once said,
"All men are enamored of decorations...they positively hunger for them."
So by developing the Napoleonic system – the medal business – the government learned it could get soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be decorated. Until the Civil War there were no medals. Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed out. It made enlistments easier. After the Civil War no new medals were issued until the Spanish-American War.
In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join the army.
So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side...it is His will that the Germans be killed. ~~~~
Mark Twain didn't live to see his War Prayer published. He feared the backlash it would have caused. |
