Messages 2008
An American Marine’s Disgust.
March 27th, 2008
Santa Cruz, California
Received by FAB
I am here, Smedley Butler.
When the American industrialists approached me, I had already been traveling down the path of disillusionment as to my country, so their offer was a magic button which mobilized me into action.
I had seen war close up, both as a combatant and as an officer in the hierarchy. What I saw disgusted me. As soon as the offer came, I committed myself on the spot to exposing the fraud that is war. God saw my growing unhappiness, and He honored my feelings by providing me with the opportunity of saving my country.
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.
During his 34 years of Marine Corps service, Butler was awarded numerous medals for heroism including the Marine Corps Brevet Medal (the highest Marine medal at its time for officers), and subsequently the Medal of Honor twice. Notably, he is one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, and one of only three to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor, and the only person to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor for two different actions.
In addition to his military career, Smedley Butler was noted for his outspoken anti-interventionist views, and his book “War is a Racket”. His book was one of the first works describing the workings of the military-industrial complex and after retiring from service, he became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s.
In 1934, he informed the United States Congress that a group of wealthy industrialists had plotted a military coup known as the Business Plot to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.(Source: Wikipedia)