• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

War is a Racket

n1ywb

n1ywb

NAXJA Forum User
Location
The Green Mountains
Where did you copy/paste this from, or did you actually put in the links to the United States Marine Corps, rank of Major General, Smedley Butler, and business on wikipedia...

Smedley was a great hero and a patriot. When others in the military business establishment approached him to be the leader of the country after they overthrew the president, Butler warned the gov't of the plot only to be ignored. Good thing they never were able to follow through and got caught of their own screw up later...

And no, I did not just read his wiki page. :)
 
I pretty much just cut and pasted the first paragraph of the wikipedia page, I guess that preserves links.
 
A really good movie if you want a better understanding.

Why We Fight 2006 DVD features interviews and observations by a "who’s who" of military and Washington insiders including Senator John McCain, Gore Vidal, and Dan Rather. Beginning with President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s prescient 1961 speech warning of the rise of the "military industrial complex," Why We Fight moves far beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why America seemingly is always at war. What are the forces – political, economic, and ideological – that drive us to clash against an ever-changing enemy? Just why does America fight? Unforgettable, powerful and at times disturbing, Why We Fight on DVD will challenge viewers long after the last fade-out.
51SPX4W8YDL.jpg
 
The movie Why We Fight is some good food for thought. While I couldn't help but admire the capabilities of the private sector during my time overseas, it was also disgusting. Yes, I'm all for building bigger and better guns and stuff, but really, pakistani cooks contracted through a outsourcing firm sub contracted by another corporation, in joint holdings with another corp, sub contracted by staffing agency, contracted by KBR is just flat out wrong. Of course, maybe I'm just biased from when the Ugandan security guards decided they only needed to man 2 out of the dozens of guard towers, in which no one noticed the Iraqis driving trucks through the perimeter fence and helping themselves to the base.

-Eric
 
n1ywb said:
War Is a Racket is the title of a booklet by two-time medal of honor recipient retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler. In them, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit from warfare.

This was published in 1935 and it's eery how it still rings true. It's short, pithy, and pretty easy to read.

Full text: http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Click to expand...


And, a quite profitable racket at that.
 
Manic Mechanic said:
The movie Why We Fight is some good food for thought. While I couldn't help but admire the capabilities of the private sector during my time overseas, it was also disgusting. Yes, I'm all for building bigger and better guns and stuff, but really, pakistani cooks contracted through a outsourcing firm sub contracted by another corporation, in joint holdings with another corp, sub contracted by staffing agency, contracted by KBR is just flat out wrong. Of course, maybe I'm just biased from when the Ugandan security guards decided they only needed to man 2 out of the dozens of guard towers, in which no one noticed the Iraqis driving trucks through the perimeter fence and helping themselves to the base.

-Eric
Click to expand...
The Ugandans wouldn't have been contractors. They were likely coalition troops. We had Canadians, Germans, Americans, Aussies, and Romanians all come through our base at various points.
 
Darky said:
The Ugandans wouldn't have been contractors. They were likely coalition troops. We had Canadians, Germans, Americans, Aussies, and Romanians all come through our base at various points.
Click to expand...


IIRC, the Ugandans were contracted through EODT and SOC. They were all over Iraq (I bounced between COB Adder, all the way north to JBB Anaconda, and all around BIAP). They wore tan uniforms with a private security corp patch. They literally have only days worth of training and get paid $600 a month. It is no joke, dozens of companies sub-contract each other, creating several "middle-men", which turns a multi-million dollar contract for security at bases into just a couple dozen Ugandans without a freakin' clue. Use to piss me off because it was a huge waste, the guard duties they were doing could have been done by a company of support troops, and saved millions of dollars, and been alot more effective.

Speaking of stupid wastes of money and other more important things, riddle me this, why did a convoy I was escorting take an IED while transporting a brand new F-150 for some contractor in northern Iraq? As I said earlier, it was disgusting at times.

-Eric
 
Interesting. When I was in Afghan, the Canadians were in charge of security, with the Army and for a short time, us Marines, working smaller bunkers at night. They left, and the Romanians took their place. :)
 
Yeah, coalition troops would have been better, I would have gladly taken the Romanians or Canadaians. I know the Army went on about being shorthanded, but a majority of the time there were still alot of joes just sitting around doing nothing. Just a waste.

-Eric
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top