You STILL Can’t Argue With Stupid
By Nancy Greggs
Well, I’ve said it before – and I’ll say it again. You can’t argue with Stupid. And we all know who Stupid is.
He’s posting on websites about the necessity of war from the safety of his mother’s basement. He is always in a state of furor over the fact that the other guy isn’t in Iraq fightin’ the good fight. He’d be there himself, but like his heroes, he has other priorities – like not leaving his neighborhood hockey team short a cheerleader when there’s a big game coming up next Tuesday.
He spends an inordinate amount of time hiding under his bed, because he knows those Islamofascists he’s heard about on FOX-News are undoubtedly headed to his little neck of the woods (Little Neck O’ The Woods: Population 14), to wreak their havoc right in the middle of the sidewalk sale at the local strip-mall, waving counterfeit Chick-Fil-A coupons around in an obvious attempt to undermine the American economy.
Of course, Stupid is just a product of the world in which he lives. He listens to the Professional Stupids on the radio and TV – like the right-wing pundit who thinks his job description includes outing a covert CIA agent in what passes for 'journalism' in the rag that prints his columns, or the PNACer pressing the meat with those liberal media types, explaining how things are going so swimmingly in Iraq, we might as well attack Iran while we’re on a roll. ("I'm telling you, we'll be greeted as liberators, with sweets and flowers! And THIS time, I ain't kiddin'!")
When people talk about the rights that have gone down the toilet thanks to the Bush administration, Stupid doesn’t understand what they’re talking about. “What rights? What freedoms?”
You see, Stupid doesn’t get it. He thinks habeas corpus is a hip-hop band out of Chicago, and he doesn’t listen to that crap (especially since Rush Limbaugh told him that HC once opened for the Dixie Chicks). As for having his phone tapped and his mail read, Stupid doesn’t have a problem with that – because he’s got nuthin’ to hide. Stupid doesn’t care if Agent Mike is tracking what websites he goes to (unless, of course, Agent Mike tells his mother how many times he’d logged-on to Topless Co-eds Gone Wild, in which case he might be tempted to rethink his position).
As far as Stupid is concerned, as long as he doesn’t care that his rights are being violated, that means nobody’s rights are being violated – because who’s more important than Stupid, when all is said and done?
Of course, when Bush or anyone else in his administration refuse to turn over emails, documents, etc., Stupid never makes the connection with the concept of innocent people having nuthin’ to hide. Stupid firmly believes that if George W. Bush has something to hide, it’s because Jesus specifically told him to hide it – an invocation of Savior-Client privilege, if you will.
And speaking of Jesus, there’s another topic that Stupid will tell you about at length. You see, apparently the Prince of Peace is no longer in effect, and real Christians have moved on from that ol' New Testament guy they once revered. As far as Stupid is concerned, there’s a new Jesus in town – and he’s packin’. He’s about to premiere his Second Coming with guns a’blazin’, going after homosexuals and abortionists et al. In other words, Jesus is coming back to set the record straight – having obviously forgotten to condemn gays and abortion the first time around.
Like I said, you can’t argue with Stupid, because he knows he’s right.
He knows the economy is going great, and if the hard numbers don’t mesh with that idea, it’s just because those Liberal bean-counters are trying to pull a fast one.
He knows that victory in Iraq is just around the next corner, and all those stories of death and destruction are propaganda perpetrated by a few million Iraqis who have nothing better to do but whine about the state of their country.
He knows that his job is secure, because the guy who owns the company he works for is a Bush-supporting real American, who would never relocate the plant to a cheaper labor market for the sake of a few bucks.
He knows that the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are having the time of their lives, regardless of how long they have to stay there. He knows that those news items about returning vets getting the shaft when they need medical attention and rehab are just nonsense, because his Support the Troops party would never ignore the plight of our fightin’ men and women, any more than they would ignore the plight of little kids who don’t have any access to healthcare.
No, you can’t argue with Stupid. He’s got the whole thing sussed out, and he’s never met a fact he can’t totally ignore.
Posted in full with the author's permission.
Originally posted at democraticunderground.com: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs/290
Monday, October 22, 2007
I think I have seen everything.
In my 61 years on this planet, I thought I had seen most things.
I have been married and divorced. I have children and have seen a child die. I have grandchildren and have seen a grandchild die. I watched my Mother suffer with Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia for years before passing away in 2005.
I have spent 16 miserable days on a troopship from Oakland, California to Da Nang, Viet Nam.
I witnessed Tet of 1968 up close and personal.
In April 1970, I was in a forward base camp 100 meters inside the Cambodian border.
I have learned to fly a helicopter, shoot a 4.2 mortar, repair teletype machines, high frequency and tactical radios, land mine detectors and pretty much everything in between.
I have teed off a round of golf at midnight in Tronheim, Norway.
I was at the 1972 Olympics in Munich when the unthinkable happened.
Today I have been listening to the Senate debate about redefining Common Article Three of the Geneva Convention and revocation of habeas corpus. I have watched Senators argue that secret trials and secret evidence is good.
Today our values may be time warped to pre-1215 values.
I just can’t get my brain around what is being done to our dignity today. I can truthfully say I think I have seen everything.
Something is really, really wrong here.
I have been married and divorced. I have children and have seen a child die. I have grandchildren and have seen a grandchild die. I watched my Mother suffer with Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia for years before passing away in 2005.
I have spent 16 miserable days on a troopship from Oakland, California to Da Nang, Viet Nam.
I witnessed Tet of 1968 up close and personal.
In April 1970, I was in a forward base camp 100 meters inside the Cambodian border.
I have learned to fly a helicopter, shoot a 4.2 mortar, repair teletype machines, high frequency and tactical radios, land mine detectors and pretty much everything in between.
I have teed off a round of golf at midnight in Tronheim, Norway.
I was at the 1972 Olympics in Munich when the unthinkable happened.
Today I have been listening to the Senate debate about redefining Common Article Three of the Geneva Convention and revocation of habeas corpus. I have watched Senators argue that secret trials and secret evidence is good.
Today our values may be time warped to pre-1215 values.
I just can’t get my brain around what is being done to our dignity today. I can truthfully say I think I have seen everything.
Something is really, really wrong here.
For the Bush Regime and Iran, Freedom's Just Another Word
For the Bush Regime and Iran, Freedom's Just Another Word
THE Bush administration aggression against Iran ticked up a notch Sunday as Dick Cheney opened up his own heightened, rhetorical assault against the imaginary nuclear weapons program his White House and others have conjured up in their exploitative campaign against the sovereign, Iranian nation's pursuit of nuclear energy. Building on the past rhetoric the administration has used to insist that Iran was looking to make a nuclear bomb sometime in the future -- and amplifying Bush's fearmongering claim this week that Iran threatened to spark WW3 -- Cheney declared yesterday that, "We (unmistakably the royal, unilateral, cowboy 'we'), will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
Ignoring the U.S.'s own dual occupations in the Mideast, Cheney outlined his case against the Iranian government, which, ironically, described his own administration's aggressive use of our military to intimidate those in the region who would resist America's opportunistic advance across their sovereign borders. "Across the Middle East," Cheney told his think-tank audience, "further progress (toward peace) will depend on responsible conduct by regional governments; respect for the sovereignty of neighbors; compliance with international agreements; peaceful words, and peaceful actions. And if you apply all these measures, it becomes immediately clear that the government of Iran falls far short, and is a growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East," Cheney said.
Not to be outdone by Bush's declaration to the press Wednesday that Iran should be denied even the knowledge of nuclear weapon-making, Cheney advantaged himself of the Senate resolution which classified the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization involved in attacks on our troops in Iraq, and worked to insinuate that the administration's bogeyman, Hezbollah, was operating in Iraq to destabilize the new, Shiite-dominated, Maliki regime.
Ignoring the numerous and extensive security and economic agreements which have been forged between Tehran and the Maliki administration in Iraq, Cheney suggested that Iran was operating "in the shadows" to overthrow the new Iraqi government. "Iran's Quds Force is trying to set up a "Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and to fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq," Cheney said.
by Ron Fullwood
October 22, 2007 at 10:31:11THE Bush administration aggression against Iran ticked up a notch Sunday as Dick Cheney opened up his own heightened, rhetorical assault against the imaginary nuclear weapons program his White House and others have conjured up in their exploitative campaign against the sovereign, Iranian nation's pursuit of nuclear energy. Building on the past rhetoric the administration has used to insist that Iran was looking to make a nuclear bomb sometime in the future -- and amplifying Bush's fearmongering claim this week that Iran threatened to spark WW3 -- Cheney declared yesterday that, "We (unmistakably the royal, unilateral, cowboy 'we'), will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
Ignoring the U.S.'s own dual occupations in the Mideast, Cheney outlined his case against the Iranian government, which, ironically, described his own administration's aggressive use of our military to intimidate those in the region who would resist America's opportunistic advance across their sovereign borders. "Across the Middle East," Cheney told his think-tank audience, "further progress (toward peace) will depend on responsible conduct by regional governments; respect for the sovereignty of neighbors; compliance with international agreements; peaceful words, and peaceful actions. And if you apply all these measures, it becomes immediately clear that the government of Iran falls far short, and is a growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East," Cheney said.
Not to be outdone by Bush's declaration to the press Wednesday that Iran should be denied even the knowledge of nuclear weapon-making, Cheney advantaged himself of the Senate resolution which classified the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization involved in attacks on our troops in Iraq, and worked to insinuate that the administration's bogeyman, Hezbollah, was operating in Iraq to destabilize the new, Shiite-dominated, Maliki regime.
Ignoring the numerous and extensive security and economic agreements which have been forged between Tehran and the Maliki administration in Iraq, Cheney suggested that Iran was operating "in the shadows" to overthrow the new Iraqi government. "Iran's Quds Force is trying to set up a "Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and to fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq," Cheney said.
The Maliki regime is literally hand-in-hand with Iran. We rolled over Saddam for them and let them in the front door. There is absolutely no reason for them to resort to some military action to obtain more of what they already have a great deal of, access and influence with their neighbor. It's hard to ignore the deal Iran and Iraq inked in August on an oil pipeline which would carry oil from Iraqi oil fields to refineries in Iran. In fact, the only ones in the neighborhoodwho actually seem to be reacting to Iran's influence in Iraq these days are the hapless operators in the Bush administration and their Saudi benefactors.
It's the Saudis who've actually threatened the new Iraqi regime, promising to align with the Sunni resistance against Maliki's Shiite-dominated rule if the U.S. withdrawals. One of the U.S. aims in Iraq is to advantage the Saudi oil market by suppressing the influence of oil flowing from Iraq and from Iran to rivals like Russia and China who have billions invested in oil deals with Bush's Iranian nemesis. Russia is in line in Iraq for oil investments in Iraq -- possibly ahead of the U.S. because of existing claims to lucrative oil territory. Russia also has a deal to supply Iran with the nuclear material they'll need to power the reactors they're developing. Russia has a contract, as well, to build Iran at least one nuclear plant.
The administration is also trying to use their conjured Iranian nuclear threat and general, boiler-plate demonizing to put a wedge between Moscow and Tehran and coerce the Russians into accepting more punitive (economically crippling) U.N. sanctions against Iran; which they've, so far, blocked in the Security Council.
Putin is unruffled by the hapless floundering of the administration. He's set to use Bush's imperialism and military expansionism in Iraq as justification for a new, Cold War-like buildup of Russian military forces. "Thank God Russia is not Iraq," Putin said last week. "Russia has enough arms and resources to protect itself and its interests, domestically and internationally. And certainly, such statements by Western politicians confirm that all that we are doing now to both our army and navy, are the right things and we will continue to do so," Putin told Russians via a televised question-and-answer session, (responding, in part, to a comment by former Sec of State, Madeline Albright, suggesting Siberia deserved some sort of autonomy from Russia because of it's size and wealth).
The lame-duck Bush administration is acting as if they're in the catbird seat with their conjured threat of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, and their convenient disregard of Iran's own security concerns -- with Iran's former rival armed to the teeth and right across their border with an escalated U.S. military force. Whatever role some Iranians may have had in "aiding" or "arming" resistance forces who've "killed U.S. soldiers," it's clear that it is our own oppressive occupation force which is fueling the resistant violence; far beyond anything that Iran could, or would, instigate.
Our military occupation of Iraq is creating even more individuals and groups pledged to violent resistance to Bush's military advance on their land. For the threat to our soldiers to end, and for any reconciliation to occur, we will need to leave Iraq. After that, it will take a recognition by the U.S. that Iraq's internal struggles for power, influence, resources, and territory is best left to Iraqis and their immediate neighbors. Iran (and others in the region, before us) will almost certainly have a major role to play in helping achieve whatever stability the new Iraqi regime can hope for in the wake of a U.S. withdrawal.
"The spirit of freedom is stirring in Iran," Cheney said, apparently referring to his own heightened aggression toward the sovereign nation. Freedom, with this administration, has been defined by their 'liberation' of the Iraqis of their sovereign government and its replacement with a U.S.-friendly regime, installed behind the 'shock-and-awe' of our military forces. Freedom for this administration has been defined by their liberation of Iraqis from their resources, their lives, and their livelihoods.
Freedom of the type that Cheney and his White House bunch are looking for in Iran has been defined by this administration in Iraq, and for Iraqis, as nothing left to lose. How much longer, therefore, in all of this that's been imposed by this administration with impunity, will Americans be able to call ourselves free?
Ron Fullwood, is an activist from Columbia, Md. and the author of the book 'Power of Mischief' : Military Industry Executives are Making Bush Policy and the Country is Paying the Price
Sunday, October 21, 2007
There, There - You Will ALWAYS Be Relevant
There, There - You Will ALWAYS Be Relevant
By Nancy Greggs
Well, it’s been another downer of a week, hasn’t it, George? I guess it was Gore’s Nobel that put you in a bad mood – made you stomp your feet, and veto health care coverage for little kids just to show you’re still relevant, God damn it!
Well, George, you needn’t have worried. You see, in the true sense of the word – relevant: as in pertaining to the matter – no one will think you irrelevant for decades to come.
Whenever we ponder the destruction in Iraq, and the hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, you will be relevant because you caused it all.
When we see a wounded veteran – blind, burned, wheelchair-bound – you will be relevant, because you sent him and his comrades into combat without the necessary equipment to keep them safe. As we watch them beg for change on the street, you will be relevant for your failure to provide them with the barest of necessities after they sacrificed everything under your sorry, inept leadership.
In future observances of Veterans’ Day, as families and friends visit the gravesites of their fallen loved ones, you will be relevant in that it was you who sent them to their deaths fighting an unnecessary and unwinnable war, a conflict of your own creation based on lies.
In the years to come – more probably the decades to come – as we watch tensions in the Middle East grow worse, and look back to where all hope of a peaceful resolution was dimmed, you will be relevant for your hand in fanning the flames of unrest.
As our children study the Constitution, you will be relevant when they learn about the administration that sought to undermine its principles and destroy its meaning at every turn.
As our grandchildren struggle to pay off the debt you have left them, you will be relevant, the man who not only created that debt, but added to it by decreasing taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations, who lined the pockets of war-profiteering companies controlled by friends and family members, who inexplicably lost billions in taxpayers' dollars in the fog of war.
When we raise the flag at future Fourth of July celebrations, you will be relevant as we recall the administration that sullied that flag with the blood of those tortured at your behest, those humiliated for your amusement, those unjustly accused by a system of justice you corrupted beyond all imagining.
When we look back in retrospect on the horrific events of September 11, 2001, you will be relevant as we picture you reading a children’s book while our country was under attack; you will be relevant as we discuss why those who warned of the probability of such a catastrophe were ignored, why all investigations into its unfolding were stonewalled by your administration after-the-fact.
I know you are greatly concerned with your legacy, but have no fear -- you will be relevant as the history books recount your misdeeds, your deceit, your buffoonery, your idiotic posturing, your arrogance in the face of your own failures, your corruption, your greed, and your inability to speak without being exposed as a mindless fool.
Yes, even after your passing, you will be relevant, as future generations talk about the Worst.President.Ever., as investigations into your wrongdoing are finalized at long last, as things that are now still held in secret are exposed to the light of day, forever damning you and your cohorts as perpetrators of crimes against their own country, and the citizens of the world.
Whenever future generations look back on this current, blackened era – a time when ineptitude was rewarded, when government incompetence was the rule of the day, when corruption and greed in high places was deemed acceptable, when men in positions of trust used their influence and power to thwart every noble ideal this country every stood for – you will be relevant to those memories we would all have hoped to forget.
So go off on yet another of your endless vacations, and sleep well knowing that you will always be relevant, now and in future, when just men and women cast their minds back to the darkest of humanity's days, and the despicable men who brought them about.
Originally posted at democraticunderground.com: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs/288
By Nancy Greggs
Well, it’s been another downer of a week, hasn’t it, George? I guess it was Gore’s Nobel that put you in a bad mood – made you stomp your feet, and veto health care coverage for little kids just to show you’re still relevant, God damn it!
Well, George, you needn’t have worried. You see, in the true sense of the word – relevant: as in pertaining to the matter – no one will think you irrelevant for decades to come.
Whenever we ponder the destruction in Iraq, and the hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, you will be relevant because you caused it all.
When we see a wounded veteran – blind, burned, wheelchair-bound – you will be relevant, because you sent him and his comrades into combat without the necessary equipment to keep them safe. As we watch them beg for change on the street, you will be relevant for your failure to provide them with the barest of necessities after they sacrificed everything under your sorry, inept leadership.
In future observances of Veterans’ Day, as families and friends visit the gravesites of their fallen loved ones, you will be relevant in that it was you who sent them to their deaths fighting an unnecessary and unwinnable war, a conflict of your own creation based on lies.
In the years to come – more probably the decades to come – as we watch tensions in the Middle East grow worse, and look back to where all hope of a peaceful resolution was dimmed, you will be relevant for your hand in fanning the flames of unrest.
As our children study the Constitution, you will be relevant when they learn about the administration that sought to undermine its principles and destroy its meaning at every turn.
As our grandchildren struggle to pay off the debt you have left them, you will be relevant, the man who not only created that debt, but added to it by decreasing taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations, who lined the pockets of war-profiteering companies controlled by friends and family members, who inexplicably lost billions in taxpayers' dollars in the fog of war.
When we raise the flag at future Fourth of July celebrations, you will be relevant as we recall the administration that sullied that flag with the blood of those tortured at your behest, those humiliated for your amusement, those unjustly accused by a system of justice you corrupted beyond all imagining.
When we look back in retrospect on the horrific events of September 11, 2001, you will be relevant as we picture you reading a children’s book while our country was under attack; you will be relevant as we discuss why those who warned of the probability of such a catastrophe were ignored, why all investigations into its unfolding were stonewalled by your administration after-the-fact.
I know you are greatly concerned with your legacy, but have no fear -- you will be relevant as the history books recount your misdeeds, your deceit, your buffoonery, your idiotic posturing, your arrogance in the face of your own failures, your corruption, your greed, and your inability to speak without being exposed as a mindless fool.
Yes, even after your passing, you will be relevant, as future generations talk about the Worst.President.Ever., as investigations into your wrongdoing are finalized at long last, as things that are now still held in secret are exposed to the light of day, forever damning you and your cohorts as perpetrators of crimes against their own country, and the citizens of the world.
Whenever future generations look back on this current, blackened era – a time when ineptitude was rewarded, when government incompetence was the rule of the day, when corruption and greed in high places was deemed acceptable, when men in positions of trust used their influence and power to thwart every noble ideal this country every stood for – you will be relevant to those memories we would all have hoped to forget.
So go off on yet another of your endless vacations, and sleep well knowing that you will always be relevant, now and in future, when just men and women cast their minds back to the darkest of humanity's days, and the despicable men who brought them about.
Originally posted at democraticunderground.com: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs/288
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Numbers
It’s all about numbers. $3,000,000,000 , $649,000,000,000 , 300,000 , 400,000 , $329,000,000 , 177 , $5,000 , 2 , 4,200,000 , 1,000,000, $200,000,000,000 etc.
$3,000,000,000 a week.
I’m tired of these numbers.
Monday, October 8, 2007
First, a llttle about Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Buter
To understand where these vets are coming from, you need to understand what Smedley stood for.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler :
Capture of Fort Riviere, Haiti, 1915, by D. J. Neary; illustrations of Maj Smedley Butler, Sgt Iams, and Pvt Gross (USMC art collection)
Read it. Smedley Butler set the tone for much of what the Boston chapter of the Veterans For Peace does.
Peace Out, Brothers and Sisters!
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler :
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye," was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.
Butler was awarded the brevet medal (the highest Marine medal at its time), and subsequently the Medal of Honor twice during his career, one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor. He was noted for his outspoken anti-interventionist views, and his book War Is a Racket was one of the first works describing the workings of the military-industrial complex. After retiring from service, Butler became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s. Butler came forward in 1934 and informed Congress that a group of wealthy industrialists had plotted a military coup to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Early life
Butler was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the oldest in a family of three sons. His parents were Thomas Stalker Butler and Maud (Darlington) Butler, both members of distinguished Quaker families. His father was a lawyer, judge, and, for 31 years, a Congressman. During his time in Congress, Thomas S. Butler was chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee during the Harding and Coolidge administrations.
Butler was educated at the West Chester Friends Graded High School and later at The Haverford School, a secondary school for sons of upper-class Quaker families near Philadelphia.[1] He dropped out to join the Marines. [2]
Military career
Despite his father's desire that he remain in school, Smedley Butler dropped out when the United States declared war against Spain in 1898. As he was only 16 years old, Butler lied about his age to secure a second lieutenant's commission in the Marines.
After three weeks of basic training, Second Lieutenant Butler was sent to Guantanamo, Cuba, in July 1898. The bay was already secured, but a Spanish sniper's bullet barely missed Butler's head one night.
Butler was twice wounded during the Boxer Rebellion. During the Battle of Tientsin on July 13, 1900, Butler climbed out of a trench to retrieve a wounded officer for medical attention, whereupon he was shot in the thigh. Another Marine helped the wounded Butler to safety but was himself shot; Butler continued to assist the first man to the rear. Four enlisted men received the Medal of Honor; though officers were not eligible to receive the award, in recognition of his bravery in the incident, Butler was commissioned a captain by brevet. Butler received his promotion while in the hospital recovering, two weeks before his nineteenth birthday. Butler was also shot in the chest at San Tan Pating.[3]
In 1903, Butler fought to protect the U.S. Consulate in Honduras from rebels. An incident during that expedition allegedly earned him the first of several colorful nicknames, "Old Gimlet Eye," attributed to the feverish, bloodshot eyes which enhanced his habitually penetrating and bellicose stare.
Butler was married in 1905 to Ethel C. Peters, of Philadelphia. They had a daughter, Ethel Peters, and two sons, Smedley Darlington and Thomas Richard. He was then posted to garrison duty in the Philippines. Even in garrison, he managed to distinguish himself, launching a resupply mission across the stormy waters of Subic Bay after his isolated outpost ran out of rations. He was eventually diagnosed with "nervous breakdown" in 1908 and he was given 9 months sick leave. He returned home and spent a successful time in the West Virginia coal mining business. Despite an offer of permanent employment from the owners, he returned to the Corps.[4]
From 1909 to 1912, he served in Nicaragua.
First Medal of Honor
Between the Spanish-American War and the American entry into the first World War in 1917, Butler achieved the distinction, shared with only one other Marine (Dan Daly) since that time, of being twice awarded the Medal of Honor for outstanding gallantry in action.
The first award was for his activities in the U.S. occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in 1914. But the large number of Medals of Honor awarded during that campaign — one for the Army, nine for Marines and 46 to Navy personnel — diminished the medal's prestige. During World War I, Butler, then a major, attempted to return his Medal of Honor, explaining that he had done nothing to deserve it. It was returned with orders that not only would he keep it, but that he would wear it as well.
Second Medal of Honor, Haiti (1915)
The Marines tried to secure Haiti against the "Cacos" rebels in 1915. On October 24, 1915, a patrol of forty-four mounted Marines led by Butler was ambushed by some 400 Cacos. The Marines maintained their perimeter throughout the night, and early the next morning they charged the much larger enemy force from three directions. The startled Haitians fled. Sergeant Major Dan Daly received a Medal of Honor for his gallantry in the battle.
By mid-November 1915, most of the Cacos had been dispersed from the Haitian region. The remainder took refuge at Fort Rivière, an old French-built stronghold deep within the country. Fort Rivière sat atop Montagne Noire, the front reachable by a steep, rocky slope. The other three sides fell away so steeply that an approach from those directions was impossible. Some Marine officers argued that it should be assaulted by a regiment supported by artillery, but Butler convinced his colonel to allow him to attack with just four companies of 24 men each, plus two machine gun detachments. Butler and his men took the rebel stronghold on November 17, 1915, in which he received his second Medal of Honor, for which he also received the Haitian Medal of Honor. Major Butler recalled that his troops "hunted the Cacos like pigs." His exploits impressed FDR, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who awarded the medal for an engagement in which 200 Cacos were killed and no prisoners taken, while one Marine was struck by a rock and lost two teeth.
Later, as the initial organizer and commanding officer of the Haitian Gendarmerie, the native police force, Butler established a record as a capable administrator. Under his supervision, order was largely restored, and many vital public works projects were successfully completed.
It is conceivable Butler might have become the only three-time recipient of the Medal of Honor. However, at the time of the Boxer Rebellion, Marine Corps regulations did not allow officers to receive this decoration. For his bravery he received the Marine Corps Brevet Medal. Only 20 men have ever earned this award, and only three men have received both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor.
World War I
During World War I, Butler, much to his disappointment, was not assigned to a combat command on the Western Front. While his superiors considered him brave and brilliant, they also described him as "unreliable." He was, however, promoted to the rank of brigadier general at the age of 37 and placed in command of Camp Pontanezen at Brest, France. In October 1918, a debarkation depot near Brest funneled troops of the American Expeditionary Force to the battlefields. The camp was plagued by horribly unsanitary, overcrowded and disorganized conditions. U.S. Secretary of War Newton Baker sent novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart to report on the camp. She later described how Butler began by solving the mud problem: "[T]he ground under the tents was nothing but mud, [so] he had raided the wharf at Brest of the duckboards no longer needed for the trenches, carted the first one himself up that four-mile hill to the camp, and thus provided something in the way of protection for the men to sleep on." General John J. Pershing authorized a duckboard shoulder patch for the units. This won Butler another nickname, "Old Duckboard." For his services, Butler earned not only the Distinguished Service Medal of both the Army and the Navy but also the French Order of the Black Star.
Following the war, Butler transformed the wartime training camp at Quantico, Virginia into a permanent Marine post.
Director of Public Safety
On official leave of absence from the Marine Corps from January 1924 to December 1925, Butler briefly became the Director of Public Safety in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Due to the influence of Butler's father, the congressman, the newly elected mayor of Philadelphia, W. Freeland Kendrick, asked Butler to leave the Marines to become Director of Public Safety, the official in charge of running the police and fire departments. Philadelphia's municipal government was notoriously corrupt. Butler refused at first, but when Kendrick asked President Calvin Coolidge to intervene, and Coolidge contacted Butler to say that he could take the necessary leave from the Corps, Butler agreed.
Within days, Butler ordered raids on more than 900 speakeasies. Butler also went after bootleggers, prostitutes, gamblers and corrupt police officers. He had roofs removed from police cars so that the officers could not sleep during their shifts, which had apparently been a fairly common practice prior to his appointment. Butler was more zealous than politic in his duties; in addition to going after gangsters and the working-class joints, Butler raided the social elites' favorite speakeasies, the Ritz-Carlton and the Union League. A week later, Kendrick fired Butler. Butler later said "cleaning up Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in."[5]
China and stateside service
From 1927 to 1929, Butler was commander of the Marine Expeditionary Force in China. He cleverly parlayed among various nationalist generals and warlords in order to protect American lives and property, and ultimately won the public acclaim of contending Chinese leaders.
When Butler returned to the United States, in 1929, he was promoted. At 48, he became the Marine Corps' youngest major general. Butler helped to preserve the Marine Corps' existence against critics in the Army and the Congress who, during budget fights, argued that the Army could do the work of the Marines. He directed the Quantico camp's growth until it became the "showplace" of the Corps. He also set about vigorously to keep the Marines in the public limelight. In four years, his Quantico Marines football team amassed a record of 38-2-2 against powerful service teams as well as civilian schools, and bulldog mascot "Sergeant Major Jiggs" became a national symbol of Marine tenacity and aggressiveness. Butler also won national attention by taking thousands of his men on long field marches, many of which he led from the front, to Gettysburg and other Civil War battle sites, where they conducted large-scale re-enactments before crowds of often distinguished spectators.
In 1931, Butler publicly recounted gossip about Benito Mussolini in which the dictator allegedly struck a child with his automobile in a hit-and-run accident. The Italian government protested, and President Hoover, who strongly disliked Butler, forced Secretary of the Navy Adams to court-martial Butler. Butler became the first general officer to be placed under arrest since the Civil War. Butler apologized (to Adams) and the court martial was cancelled with only a reprimand.
Military retirement
When Major General Wendell C. Neville died in July 1930, many expected Butler to succeed him as Commandant of the Marine Corps. Butler, however, had criticized too many things too often, and the recent death of his father, the congressman, had removed some of his protection from the hostility of his civilian superiors. Butler failed to receive the appointment, although he was then the senior major general on the active list. The position went instead to Major General Ben H. Fuller. At his own request, Butler retired from active duty on October 1, 1931.
Claims of the Business Plot
- Main article: Business Plot
In 1934, Butler came forward and reported to the U.S. Congress that a group of wealthy pro-Fascist industrialists had been plotting to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a military coup. Even though the congressional investigating committee corroborated most of the specifics of his testimony, no further action was taken.
Speaking and writing career
Butler took up a lucrative career on the lecture circuit. He also was part of a commission established by Oregon Governor Julius L. Meier that helped form the Oregon State Police.[2] In 1932, he ran for the U.S. Senate in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, allied with Gifford Pinchot, but was defeated by Senator James J. Davis.
Butler was known for his outspoken lectures against war profiteering and what he viewed as nascent fascism in the United States. During the 1930s, he gave many such speeches to pacifist groups. Between 1935 and 1937, he served as a spokesman for the American League Against War and Fascism (which some considered communist-dominated).[6]
In his 1935 book, War Is a Racket, Butler presented an exposé and trenchant condemnation of the profit motive behind warfare. His views on the subject are well summarized in the following passage from a 1935 issue of "the non-Marxist, socialist" magazine, Common Sense — one of Butler's most widely quoted statements:
- 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.
Smedley Butler died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, June 21, 1940. He was buried at West Chester. His doctor had described his illness as an incurable condition of the upper gastro-intestinal tract, probably cancer.
Legacy and honours
- Camp Smedley Butler Marine Corps base in Okinawa, Japan was named in honor of Butler.
- The Boston, Massachusetts, chapter of Veterans for Peace is called the Smedley D. Butler Brigade in his honor.
- USS Butler (DD-636), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was named in his honor in 1942.
- Butler was featured in the documentary film The Corporation.
- Billy Bragg quoted Butler's famous paragraph (above) to describe his song The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions in the liner notes of the album The Internationale.
- Since Butler's death no man has earned more than one Medal of Honor.
- In his book My First Days in the White House, Senator Huey Long of Louisiana stated that, if elected to the presidency, he would name Butler as his Secretary of War.
You should also read "The Plot to Seize the White House" by Jules Archer. The book was originally published in 1973 and was republished in October 2006. If you don't have the funds to purchase it, try your local library.
http://www.amazon.com/Plot-Seize-White-House-Conspiracy/dp/1602390363/ref=sr_1_1/002-5651593-1729634?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191837525&sr=8-1
The final line of the book:
"If we remember Major General Smedley Darlington Butler for nothing else, we owe him an eternal debt of gratitude for spurning the chance to become dictator of the United States-and for making damned sure no one else did either."
- "The Plot To Seize The White House" by Jules Archer, 1973
Maj. Gen. Butler penned a small booklet in 1935 titled "War is a Racket." It's now available online:
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Read it. Smedley Butler set the tone for much of what the Boston chapter of the Veterans For Peace does.
Peace Out, Brothers and Sisters!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Coming soon
Veterans from the Gulf Wars (both of 'em), Afghanistan, Korea, Viet Nam and Iraq will be posting on this blog within the next few weeks.
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