I wish I had the skills to make a parody of this poster:
Looking for that image, I stumbled across the wonderful Spanish and French posters for "Dr. Strangelove":
April 24, 2023
I'm getting a "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" vibe from this NYT headline.
"How Democrats Learned to Cast Aside Reservations and Embrace Biden 2024."
Have you stopped worrying about the bomb? I mean, have you cast aside reservations about the bomb? (And learned to love Joe Biden?)
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74 comments:
Joe Biden has been bribed by the Ukrainians. I think he's been paid over $50m in bitcoin and/or diamonds.
As a result, he's going to get us into a nuke exchange with Russia. Unless, of course, Vlad dies of natural causes and his successor comes to his senses.
As long as it is Ukrainians dying, Democrats and Neocons are fine with Biden and NATO walking us to the brink.
Some type of pain has to be felt by Ivory Tower liberals for them to fear any of it. But, I guess when you pretend to believe the Earth can only support human life for another twelve years because of global warming, you've already accepted your fate.
It's easy to accept when you know it's fake.
What was wrong with the peace and prosperity we had prior to Biden?
We'll be very lucky if we're not dragged into war with either Russia or China. For the Democrats a nuclear exchange is just the cherry on the sunday.
"Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks."
Maybe we should throw in a few million more since Biden's inflation touches everything.
I couldn't help noticing that all 3 of the movie ads suggested a sexual angle that wasn't really there. Kind of like Hunter and his baby mama is about the least of my worries about the Biden presidency. And yes, worrying about the Bomb is back! (When you're counting on Putin to be the adult in the room even as he's backed into a corner, maybe you're in trouble.)
i'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed..
But i am saying, that we can count on 81 million votes; tops*
tops* and by tops, i mean at least
Any doubt that Democrats are crazy now??
The powers that be want their loyal old puppet.
On one hand, I hope Democrats nominate Biden--He'll either lose or taint the Democratic party for a generation. OTOH, he might cause WW III or destroy the US, so mabee a less senescent candidate would be safer.
Out Professor asks.. Have you stopped worrying about the bomb?
I worry about it, a Hell of a Lot MORE now, than i ever have in my life
Back when US and THEM* each had Tens of thousand of nuclear missiles, war was not realistic option.
The active inventory in FY 2009 is 450 Minuteman III missiles, plus about 14 Ohio class SSBN's with 20 Triton missiles each.
That sounds like a lot.. It's NOT. how many cities in China have a population over 1 million?
There's GOING to BE a Nuclear war.. a LOT of American cities will be burnt out.. a LOT. China will WIN
THEM* The Hordes of Eastern Mongolia.. Also known as SU (soviet union)
If you listen to democrat talking points and the left's canned BS responses to China's upcoming war with Taiwan - they are laughable. The corrupt collective pro-war left will never lift a finger to aid Taiwan's' independence.
Why? Because the democrats in power are not about 'DEMOCRACY!" - They are all on the take with the Chinese Communists - bought and paid for. Democrats are assho.
Acute Radiation Sickness. Google it, learn it, embrace it.
That poster child for voter fraud can’t even finish his sentences.
Joe Biden should be drooling on a bib in rest home.
I suppose the fallatrices of Joe "Shit for Brains" Biden have no shame to which one can appeal. Perhaps Robert Kennedy Jr. can show them the path forward.
Love or lust? All's fair in...
Sorry to start Monday with a pessimistic comment.
How many among us have noticed the collective amnesia and mass self hypnosis that allow us to ignore the coming end of US hegemony? It is not likely to be merely uncomfortable. If you're not worrying, you are part of the reason for what's coming.
The Democrats do not have to be forced to drink the Kool Aid.
Biden wasn’t popular with the left in 2020 and he isn’t any more popular with the left now, but as in 2020 and 2024, the left is considering the alternative, Trump. Senile Biden is still a better choice.
THose old movie posters always make me smile. They'd always work in some young cutie and center her in the poster, even if the film had almost no women or it was a war film! IRC, the girl in Dr.Stranglove shows up for about 2 minutes. And that's it. Every other actor is male.
I often wondered why she was in the movie, but now I see why.
If you look at Kubrick's flims he didn't like working with actresses. Its hard to find one of his films where the Actress has a good part. Paths of Glory, Full metal Jacket, Dr. Stragnelove, 2001, clockwork orange, have almost no significant roles for the female characters. And in his adaptations of Lolita, the shining, and Barry Lyndon, Kubrick drastically cuts back the roles of the female characters. Nicole Kidman is cast in "Eyes wide shut" and given nothing to do. ITs really a tom cruise movie.
If you mean have I come to terms that the system is entirely rigged, especially since the Democrats paid cash money to voters to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the only way Biden loses is if the cabal that controls the US regime throws him out, which they won't, then yes. The only way he is not POTUS is if his Ukraine project goes totally pear shaped, and the neocons who control the CIA, FBI, and much of the DNC, need a scapegoat, or he has another aneurism, maybe. But the neocons would happily have a Fettermanesque zombie in office. They don't even trust Biden to do his announcement live. Who knows what they have done to doctor the video?
Trump is not serious about the general. election, while the Democrats shape the battle space so that they can't lose. This is because the overwhelming majority of the Republican elite prefers Biden.
Parody... Easy.
Pr. Biden
Or
How
I Learned
To
Stop
Worrying
And
Love
The
Dems
I have not stopped worrying about the bomb, and I haven't even learned to like Joe Biden.
We are closer to nuclear war than we have been since 1950. If we go to war with China, we will lose. The military is decimated by a combination of DIE and vaccine fantasy. We already have an invasion in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
"It is not likely to be merely uncomfortable."
Overreach is the death of empires, why are we any different? Joe Biden did not have to push so many chips onto the table in a losing bet like Ukraine. Killing hundreds of thousands, well, let's be honest, millions, in overseas wars over the past three decades has done nothing but turn the world against us. We control the political elites in Europe and Australia and Japan, etc, but their populations despise us for what we have been doing since the fall of the Soviet Union, when there was a chance for peace. Our own military can no longer recruit to meet our "needs" because the our government has turned against the demographics that used to provide the soldiers. People don't join the army of a government that hates them.
Joe Biden is a Cold War ideologue, he should have been put out to pasture years ago, but he is useful to the paranoid neocons, who have now turned the world against us.
One of my top ten movies, Peter Sellers at his best.
Lionel Mandrake
General Jack Ripper
General Buck Turgidson
Major T. J. "King" Kong
President Merkin Muffley
Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski
Soviet Premier Dimitri Kissov
And of course-Purity of Essence
I think that the Democrats not having any debates is a nice touch.
Tucker Carlson Is Leaving Fox News
Getting Tucker fired is more battle space prep by the Democrats. You have to hand it to them, they want to win and know how to win.
Casting aside "reservations". Another Native American jibe.
"Embrace" Biden. A bit rapey. Did we ask permission? (Or maybe he's the one forcing the unwanted touching.)
Rusty said...
We'll be very lucky if we're not dragged into war with either Russia or China.
Rusty? embrace the horrifying Power, of the word: AND
Amusing that fake Goldwater is played by real Joe Biden this time.
That's what I'll be thinking of as I duck and cover under my desk.
How does Amazon stay in business, once our war with China starts?
How does Apple stay in business, once our war with China starts?
How does NIKE stay in business, once our war with China starts?
How does Tesla stay in business, once our war with China starts?
Without chinese solar cells, batteries, and copper for windmill motors..
And without russian oil and natural gas...
WHAT HAPPENS to the USA?
WHEN China and Russia tell Europe, to Choose..
Between the US and our Ukrainian puppets; and China and Russia.. WHO does Europe side with?
The corrupt collective pro-war left will never lift a finger to aid Taiwan's' independence.
There's a long history of that. Take Vietnam for example. Despite the misperception, the United States actually won the Vietnam War. When the peace treaty was signed, South Vietnam was an independent nation with a functional free market economy, a functional military and North Vietnam defeated militarily and no longer a threat. After giving the USSR and China two years to rearm North Vietnam, North Vietnam re-invaded South Vietnam, and the Democrats in Congress ignored our promises to South Vietnam and refused to allow President Ford to send any help. We won the war and lost the peace.
That sounds like a lot.. It's NOT. how many cities in China have a population over 1 million?
Easy peasey. On the next three Starlink flights, instead of Starlink satellites, Elon releases three set of sub-munition pods. (50 or 60 in each set?) These are designed to be carried by aircraft and could be easily modified for orbital work. The pods carry depleted uranium covered hunks of iron ejected from the pod towards Earth when over the target. The hunks could be the size of baseballs, and each KEW dispenser could carry dozens. Accuracy is not a huge problem, but you could make them maneuverable. Much cheaper to build and maintain, and we have the technology to do this now. Now it is true that China has some anti-satellite tech, but Starlink has already shown that quantity can overcome such efforts.
The key is to take control of Earth's orbitals before China does. He who controls the orbitals controls the planet.
Learned to love Biden.
That’s a good one…
Lots of nuke pessimism here.
I don't believe anyone at the top of our government wants a nuclear exchange.
I wish I could find that as reassuring as I used to. Because I'm getting way low on trust that these idiots, who still think they did a great job on Afghanistan and no one prominent deserves firing, won't blunder us into one. And, as the missiles are flying, lament that no one could have seen such a thing coming, and think about how to communicate to the survivors that it was the other guy's fault.
"Buu-uuck."
You don't have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line.
I couldn't help noticing that all 3 of the movie ads suggested a sexual angle that wasn't really there.
By today's standards perhaps. But for 1964, it was a strong theme of the movie.
The obsession over "precious bodily fluids", clearly referring to semen. There is what is clearly a workplace sexual affair going on between Gen. Turgidson (turgid) and his secretary, the president's first same is Merkin Muffley. (A Merkin is a pubic wig, and muff is slang for vagina.) The British Colonel is named Mandrake, mandrake is an aphrodisiac. The Soviet ambassador is named de Sadeski. (de Sade with a Russian ski added on) The Soviet premier is named Kissov. The president's advisor is Strangelove. Kong's last ride could easily be seen as sexual. Strangelove recommends a 10 to 1 female to male ratio for the survival bunker.
Twenty-five years passed from the release of Dr. Strangelove to the fall of the Berlin Wall, but can there be any doubt that Slim Pickens’s speech won the Cold War?
meanwhile.. does a small part of you STILL not hate the fact, that you Ever voted for W Bush?
Three Former Presidents Launch NGO to Fly Illegal Aliens Into the U.S.
gahrie said...
I couldn't help noticing that all 3 of the movie ads suggested a sexual angle that wasn't really there.
By today's standards perhaps. But for 1964, it was a strong theme of the movie.
Kong's last ride could easily be seen as sexual.
Don't leave out opening song: Try a Little Tenderness, while B-52 and KC-135 are mated and transferring fuel
I saw this movie in Film Studies Class, back in High School (having seen it Many times on TV)
Our teacher said that it was one of the first "anti-hero" movies. Kids asked; "What's That?"
And she said; "Well, Who was the Hero in the movie?"
And i raised my hand and said: "Major Kong! He did what it took, to get the job Done."
And she said; "YES!, but the 'job' was starting World War Three!"
And I Said; "yep! and he saw it through!"
Seriously would any of You WANT, you children to live in a world with fluoridated ice cream?
I mean.. REALLY?
PM said...
"Buu-uuck."
"Just go back to sleep, and your Bucky will be back real soon. Oh, and Babe.. Say your Prayers"
JPS said...
I don't believe anyone at the top of our government wants a nuclear exchange.
I doubt that anyone at the top of Their governments wanted a World War in 1914.. But, there you go
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/10/02/army-misses-recruiting-goal-by-15000-soldiers/
The Army fell about 15,000 soldiers — or 25% — short of its recruitment goal this year, officials confirmed Friday, despite a frantic effort to make up the widely expected gap in a year when all the military services struggled to find young people willing and fit to enlist.
IF you want to be horrified.. Click on that armytimes link, and take a look at the pic of the new recruits at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., Aug. 27, 2022.
be All you can Be? those kids Don't look like they'll ever BE much
I always love how people post "Breaking news" thats completely unrelated to the topic at hand. DO they understand that our host, and most us, follow the news? Or that we visit twitter and other websites? Or that we don't come here for "news updates"?
For some reason, they think they're the town crier or we're all back in a 40s film. "Extra, Extra, Carlson FIred, read all about".
OMG, give me that paper, boy, here's a nickel.
I wish I had the skills to make a parody of this poster
This reeks of instigation…
except dr strangelove was about defeatism, better read then dead, this was biden's pitch in the 80s, re the nuclear freeze,
Prior to 20202, Inga, nobody was threatening anybody. We were at peace. But now you're behind nuclear war just as long as Biden does it?
I think I see how you got your reputation here.
How can I learn to love Biden when the Democrats want my Precious Bodily Fluids?
I'm surprised anyone's surprised. The Democrats can't read the room and they never learn.
"...except dr strangelove was about defeatism, better read* (sic) than dead...."
Huh? Dr. Strangelove was about the insanity of great world powers believing their stockpiles of great and awful weapons will enable them to win--or at least survive--the global (probably nuclear) wars their stockpiles of great and awful weapons will inevitably lead them into (whether by hubris or accident). 60 years later, and at least two of the great world powers are more, rather than less beguiled by this insane conviction, and we are closer now than then to the great conflagration depicted at the end of the movie.
(*"Red," as in "Red" China, or "the Reds," etc.)
gilbar, 1:14 PM:
"be All you can Be? those kids Don't look like they'll ever BE much."
I think this is unfair. They're not even basic trainees yet, they're "students in the new Army prep course."
They look to me like awfully young people who are volunteering to forgo their pleasures and abridge their freedoms to help defend this increasingly fat and dumb, decreasingly happy country of ours. They're pictured in an article on the Army missing its recruiting goals, so they're among those making it better than it would be otherwise.
I like 'em already. ('Course I'm sentimental about kids like this, I was twice their age when I joined.) And I bet those who make it through IET would look more impressive to you on the other end of it.
As he strands 16,000 Americans in the Sudan. Biden LOVES to abandon Americans.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12007423/White-House-says-not-safe-evacuate-American-civilians-Sudan.html
"'https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/10/02/army-misses-recruiting-goal-by-15000-soldiers/ The Army fell about 15,000 soldiers — or 25% — short of its recruitment goal this year, officials confirmed Friday, despite a frantic effort to make up the widely expected gap in a year when all the military services struggled to find young people willing and fit to enlist.'
"IF you want to be horrified.. Click on that armytimes link, and take a look at the pic of the new recruits at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., Aug. 27, 2022.
be All you can Be? those kids Don't look like they'll ever BE much"
4/24/23, 1:14 PM"
Seems like we should do our nation and the world a favor and abide by the warnings of James Madison against keeping standing armies. In short, he said they become too expensive and too powerful, as seen by the example of Rome, thus threatening both the freedom of the people and the financial health and probity of the nation.
"In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people."
And:
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
The proper movie reference is "Weekend At Bernies"
Robert Cook at 5:38 reminds me, a friend (a Vietnam-era draftee who deferred to finish his PhD, then reported as ordered, unlike a great many of his peers) is fond of quoting Elbridge Gerry on the subject of standing armies:
"A standing army is like a standing member. It's an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure."
Perhaps heretically, I would be open to having a much smaller full-time Army, and putting greater emphasis on the USAR and National Guard. I still agree with Herman Wouk's Pug Henry:
"A Navy remains a handy thing to have around when the going gets rough. I hope my countrymen will remember this."
I get online ads all the time letting me know that even as an old fucker, it may still be possible for me to enlist in our armed forces! They must be desperate...
"They look to me like awfully young people who are volunteering to forgo their pleasures and abridge their freedoms to help defend this increasingly fat and dumb, decreasingly happy country of ours. They're pictured in an article on the Army missing its recruiting goals, so they're among those making it better than it would be otherwise."
Maybe. Or, maybe they can't just find any better jobs.
As for defending this country, we have fought few wars in our history that really had to do with defending our nation. The last actual fight for our defense ended 78 years ago with the end of WWII. And, even then, we were the least in direct danger and suffered the least destruction (almost none) of any of the other Allied nations.
"60 years later, and at least two of the great world powers are more, rather than less beguiled by this insane conviction, and we are closer now than then to the great conflagration depicted at the end of the movie."
This is motivated reasoning. We were absolutely more at risk in the 1960's when nukes were pre-targeted and on a launch on warning status. IF we have a modern Nuke war it will be a tactical opening with a minimal strategic response, the leader of the aggressors will be detained by his own military, probably before the weapons are delivered. China wants to win by becoming our "wiser older brother", not by destroying it's greatest market.
Xi needs food FOB Shanghai to stay in power. Have you noticed the high rate of unemployment among Chinese teens and young adults??
Cook's beliefs on war mirror, "There is no need for war. There is always surrender."
Possibly Orwell.
Seems like we should do our nation and the world a favor and abide by the warnings of James Madison against keeping standing armies.
And how did that work out during the war of 1812 when Madison was President? Washington got burned down and the US land forces under performed in battles with Canada. Canadians celebrate that war as a victory. If the US had a well functioning army at the time, Canada today would most likely be part of the US.
In contrast to the US navy did better than expected against the most British Navy.
is it
THE BOMB
or
NUKULER FUTBALL
that
cause
worry
and
love
“ If the US had a well functioning army at the time, Canada today would most likely be part of the US.“
Yes, it was good that we had no functioning army.
The one unfortunate fallout from Dr. Strangelove is the word "bodily." Clearly injected into the script as a humorous malapropism (precious bodily fluids) it seems to have gained traction as a serious word.
"Body," like most nouns, serves quite well as an adjective. Say it! "body fluids." See? It aint hard, you can do it.
The "-ly" ending connotes ADVERBS fer chrissake! Not hardly to understand.
"And how did that work out during the war of 1812 when Madison was President? Washington got burned down and the US land forces under performed in battles with Canada. Canadians celebrate that war as a victory. If the US had a well functioning army at the time, Canada today would most likely be part of the US."
Well? Our government wasn't overthrown. We're still here, with a capital city (Washington D.C.) and everything. (And, we declared war in that case. If the nation's military apparatus was insufficient at that time to back up that declaration, those who voted for war were being reckless and foolish, weren't they?)
The Army Times article cited by gilbar goes through the litany of reasons for the recruiting shortfall.
Absent (of course) is the pink elephant in the room- the Army has gone woke. The Venn diagram of those who are ready, willing, and able to embark on a military career and the people who find wokeness appealing is on the slim side (unlike the pictured recruits).
"Seems like we should do our nation and the world a favor and abide by the warnings of James Madison against keeping standing armies."
OK. Let's do that. Every male and female at eighteen years of age must spend two years on military training. No exceptions. To do that we must have a small cadre of professional soldiers sailors marines and airforce men to do the training. Your service weapons go home with you along with 200 rounds of ammunition. Every six months you do two weeks of further training. This includes crew served weapons such as mortars and heavy machine guns.
We get rid of all our overseas territories and states. They are on their own. Sorry Alaska and Hawaii. We can't afford the ships. Your on your own. That also goes for those countries we have treaties with. Not just NATO but Japan and Korea and Australia and New Zealand and we won't need aircraft carriers to project power or provide humanitarian aid. Our submarine fleet will be greatly reduced for the same reasons. To keep our shores safe we will have to ramp up not only nuclear missile production , but anti missile production as well.
You get the gist.
The great saving will not go to the taxpayer however. The corrupt leviathan state in which we live will grift any savings into more social programs from which to siphon our nations wealth.
I eagerly await your response.
"I eagerly await your response."
I agree with (only) one thing you said in that farago of scary tales: if we drastically cut back our military forces (and cut their budget to the bone)--as we should--the gain in funds available for other purposes would not be used to benefit we, the people whose money it is. The grifters and grafters in Washington (heeding their corporate masters) would find ways to explain away why those funds had to be diverted to other purposes, (i.e., continuing to feed the rich parasites who get fat on our money).
And, we declared war in that case. If the nation's military apparatus was insufficient at that time to back up that declaration, those who voted for war were being reckless and foolish, weren't they?
The reason why the US declared war in 1812 was because the British were press ganging US citizens into the British Navy. Essentially the British did respect the results of the American Revolutionary War.
Madison was President at the time and supported declaring war. That was not foolish as the British were repeatedly violently US sovereignty. What was foolish was how he as President prepared for the War and how he as Commander in Chief led the army.
You quoted Madison's statement about not wanting a standing army as some as some sort of virtuous principle. It's not virtuous, it's grossly naive as shown by the War of 1812 or even having a cursory knowledge of history.
"You quoted Madison's statement about not wanting a standing army as some as some sort of virtuous principle. It's not virtuous, it's grossly naive as shown by the War of 1812 or even having a cursory knowledge of history."
Nope. Every ill of standing armies described and predicted by Madison has manifested in our own nation in the last 70-odd years since the end of WWII because of our overgrown standing army. He knew his history, and he knew history repeated itself, as it has. It's not a matter of fucking "virtue," but of preserving the safety and freedom of the people, a caution about preventing a democratic republic from falling into tyranny and economic inequality at home and ruinous military adventuring abroad. It happened in Rome and it's happening to us now. Given our military technologies and weapons, the end result might not just be the collapse of our republic, but devastation and mass deaths to great parts (or all) of the planet.
Madison got it right on.
Every ill of standing armies described and predicted by Madison has manifested in our own nation in the last 70-odd years since the end of WWII because of our overgrown standing army.
Of course there are ills of having a standing army, especially an overgrown one. But there are even greater drawbacks in not having one, which is what Madison advocated.
The debate should be what type of standing army a nation should have rather than having one or not. The Swiss seem to have gotten right with a small standing army that can quickly be supplemented by citizens that have been properly trained for reserve duty.
No argument from me that the US has often been out of balance with it's use of the military after WWII and Eisenhower was right to warn about the undue influence of the military industrial complex. But the remedy would not be to get rid of a standing army in the US - that would cause more problems than it would solve.
"The debate should be what type of standing army a nation should have rather than having one or not."
A small one, at most. Madison warned accurately against the dangers of maintaining standing armies. I think it easy to interpret that as well as a warning against the tendency to allow small standing armies to metastasize into large ones, as the Romans did and as we have done post-WWII. Prior to WWII, American did have a standing army, but not a large one. Even so, we used our small standing army to intervene in other nations, often, if not primarily, for our own profit, or for the profit of US companies. As General Smedley Butler said in a 1933 speech, (after he had retired from service):
"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.
"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. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
"There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its 'finger men' to point out enemies, its 'muscle men' to destroy enemies, its 'brain men' to plan war preparations, and a 'Big Boss' Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
"It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, 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, a gangster for capitalism.
"I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
"I helped make Mexico, 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 benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
"During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could 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."
Smedley's description of our use of our military is as true now as then, with the difference that we operate on far larger battlegrounds today with our larger army and more devastating weapons.
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