Smedley D. Butler: War is a Profitable Racket
on Friday, July 17, 2015Smedley D. Butler Money Quotation saying clearly that where money is to be made in war, business will seek that profit regardless of losses in lives. Smedley D. Butler said:
“War is a Racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives” — Smedley D. Butler
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In this quote, Smedley D. Butler is very critically assessing the true nature and motivations behind war. His interpretation is that war has essentially always been a “racket” or a means of profiteering and making money rather than a necessary act of self-defense or conflict resolution.
Butler argues that war is possibly the oldest and surely the most lucrative business or “racket” that exists, but that its costs are paid in human lives and suffering rather than dollars.
His view is that war is unique in how its profits are tallied financially while its losses are counted only in lives lost, with no accounting of the human cost. Overall, Butler presents war as being driven first and foremost by profit motives rather than higher purposes, in his strong condemnation of its exploitative nature.
Birthday: July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940