War is STILL a Racket
"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."-- War is a Racket, Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler
Racket (noun): A fraudulent scheme, enterprise or activity. A usually illegitimate enterprise made workable by bribery or intimidation (merriam-webster)
When did the Military Industrial Complex sink its claws into American policy makers? I don’t really know. I know it happened before World War One. I know because General Smedley Butler warned us that ‘War is a Racket’. I know because Eisenhower warned us of the Military Industrial Complex in his farewell speech. No one heeded these warnings. We are a nation of war. A nation that plunders abroad and at home. We are trained to ignore it, to accept it. Our young men & women go overseas not to fight our ‘enemies’ but to create them. They are needed to fuel the ever hungry war machine. Fueled by blood and sacrifice, motivated by quarterly dividends & ‘speaking jobs’, War is a Racket.
War is a Racket
General Smedley D. Butler was the most decorated Marine in US history , including two Medals of Honor. He wrote of the dangers of the military industrial complex and traveled the country warning all who would listen. I encourage everyone to read ‘War is a Racket’. It is a fantastic piece and when you read it and realize just how far back this goes, it is incredibly eye opening. It dissuades you of the false hope that this is some ‘new phenomenon’ that will soon fade back from whence it came. Make no mistake, the racket is bigger now, the stakes are higher. The claws of our offense industry have left wounds in the soul of America. We need peace, we need change, real change. The first step is awareness & knowledge.
Who Makes the Profits
The “Defense” industry
The “Department of Defense” was only named such in 1947, before that it was appropriately named the “War Department”. Similarly, our ‘defense industry’ is not about ‘defense’, ‘war industry’ may be a better name but it is best known as the Military Industrial Complex, MIC for short. The MIC today is comprised of dozens of companies, including those you have heard of like Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon and those you may not have. It is important to note that while we often think of the MIC as ‘bombs and bullets’ it is also ‘band-aids’ and now technology as well. Below we can see the largest DOD contractors by contract value [1]. These companies make the missiles, the bullets, the planes, the tanks, the communications EVERYTHING needed for a war. The problem is, they don’t stop at building the ‘tools’ for war, they also build the case for war. They create, through corrupted politicians, consensus for war. What politicians can’t do they push through the media. The MIC can create wars from ‘cause to bullets’.
Politicians
Before becoming George Bush’s Vice President, Dick Cheney was the CEO of a company named Halliburton. Cheney was NEVER apologetic for pushing us into an immoral and unjust war in Iraq, he stated “I was a strong advocate of going into Iraq, I think it was the right decision then, and I still believe that today” [2]. He also was a BIG fan of the war in Afghanistan lasting indefinitely. Well, it was the right decision for Dick Cheney. PURELY by chance (I’m sure) KBR was one of the largest beneficiaries of the war in Iraq. KBR received $39.5 billion in federal contracts, CNN also notes that ‘The US hired more private companies in Iraq than in any previous wars”[3].
Congress
Dick Cheney was one of our worst war mongers, but he is certainly not alone. The corruption via the below methods is rampant. It should be noted that Congressional members make $174,000 a year. Remember that number. I highlight a few cases below, but I want to emphasize, this is not a partisan issue, both parties are guilty. Almost every elected official is guilty to some degree. If you are curious about candidates you may vote for this year, check out opensecrets.org.
Lobbying
Lobbying (as defined by the IRS) is when an organization attempts “to influence legislation” this includes “urging the public to contact, members or employees of a legislative body for the purpose of proposing, supporting or opposing legislation”. The defense industry spent over $153 million dollars in lobbying in 2023. It is important to note that 67% of the lobbyists were former government officials[4]. So in addition to whatever is spent in their efforts, lobbying groups also send a clear message: ‘Work with us now, while in office, and you can work with us later when you are not’. This is the ‘revolving door’ that you have likely heard of already. On the chart below (data from opensecrets.org), we can see that the majority ‘step through’ this revolving door within a year of leaving office. You may also notice that some took an alternative path, from lobbying, to government, back to lobbying (I assume the government connections are good for business).
Proponents of lobbying (likely those in government or in the lobbying industry) will state that ‘lobbyists help officials make informed decisions’. Unfortunately, it seems to play out that it helps officials make informed decisions about what is best for the lobbyist and the government official’s future income. Comparably.com, a website that shows salary information for job seekers, shows that the average DC lobbyist is making $128,000 per year.
When we look at the education of those elected to government, it seems ‘government office’ is just a step in their career paths. While the majority of elected officials now hold at least a bachelor’s, their degrees are most often in relatively useless subjects. Of those newly elected in the 118th congress , “this group studied social and behavioral sciences with political science leading the way”[5]. This was followed by ‘Humanities’ and history. According to comparably.com, the average salary for a political science major is a mere $51,000 [6] and the unemployment rate is 6.9%[7] (the national average for all unemployment in 2023 was 3.7%). When we look at the ‘careers’ of the 118th congress we see most have not had a job outside of government[8]. I point out the education and prior career information not to ‘shame’ those with low income careers/opportunities, but to point out the incentive for government officials to ‘play ball’ with the lobbying groups. To a large degree, it seems that it is revolving door or bust for our elected representatives.
Campaign Donations
There is a ton of campaign finance information, it is publicly available on the FEC website or on opensecrets.org. They commit this corruption right in front of us knowing they will still get elected and still be allowed to loot the American taxpayer.
The extent of corruption is clear when you see the difference in bribes campaign contributions when someone gets power. Looking at now Speaker Mike Johnson (R) paints a very clear picture for us. In 2022, his number one contributor was AIPAC ($25,000 in donations), a foreign government agency with unparalleled access and power in our government. These ‘contributions’ paid off, amidst turmoil in the US, the first bill brought to the house by AIPAC’s new speaker was a pro-Israel bill. The 2023-2024 year, the pro-israel industry donated $233,000 to his ‘campaign’. Lobbyists granted another $117,000, Securities & Investment gave $138,000, Defense gave ~$35,000.
This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats, it is universal corruption. It is a bi-partisan phenomenon. In 2023 Hakeem Jeffries (D), the house minority leader, received $323,000 from AIPAC. Net pro-Israel income for Jeffries was $676,622, he received $881,973 from securities and investment. I encourage you to go to www.opensecrets.org and see who your elected ‘representatives’ are truly working for.
Looking again at Mike Johnson, while only $35,000 here explicitly says defense, the other figures are at least in part ‘defense’. Israel and our support of it is the cause of most of our middle east tensions, it is both a consistent customer of our defense industry and a consistent proponent of our regime change wars in the region. Every time you hear a politician advocate for war with Iran, know that Israel, often via AIPAC, paid for that message. Lobbyists are split among various groups and I haven’t looked at each trail to break it up further. Lets not forget that Pharma ($52,000) are large war beneficiaries, Pfizer was the fourth largest contractor listed above along with others in top spots.
The finance money might seem like a separate entity altogether but they have a strongly vested interest in the war machine. As we can see in the chart below (Institutional percentages sourced from yahoo finance), “securities & investment” are also defense companies, at the very least indirectly. For those listed as private, it doesn’t mean ‘family owned’, it is instead owned by a select few finance companies and not publicly traded.
Both of Jefferies(D) an Johnson(R), in fact blend in well with their colleagues. This type of corruption and bribe taking is RAMPANT. Since 1990, 34 members of the house have received a total of over $1 million from defense, 352 received more than their annual salary in this timeframe. This year alone, 3 senators and 3 members of the house have received more than their salary from the ‘defense’ industry [9]. It is done in public because they know partisanship and fear will keep you from voting them out. From congress to pharma to finance, everyone but the American people are ‘winning’ on war.
Stock Purchases
A 2020 report showed that around the time of Trump assassinating General Qassem Soleimani, “51 members of Congress and their spouses own between $2.3 and 5.8 million worth of stocks in companies that are among the top 30 defense contractors in the world”[10]. Several of them sit on committees relevant to defense spending. Whenever fresh violence ‘kicks off’ these stocks see an uptick. This conflict of interest further pushes us towards war. Capital Trades wrote on January 22nd 2024 about this subject showing Lockheed with 14% gains and Raytheon at 22% gains since the 10/7 Hamas attack [11] and ensuing munition hungry genocide .
“Speaking” fees
The Intercept recently published an article where they showcase General Mark Milley going from a salary of $204,000 in the military to “compensation in the millions”. The author also states the absurdly high speaking fees these ‘revolving door’ beneficiaries demand. Hillary Clinton received over $600,000 in one year, with her husband, they totaled $153 million dollars since Bill left the White House[12]. Stanley McChrystal reportedly received (in addition to multiple board positions with six-figure compensation) “high five-figure speaking fees” [13]. For an example of McChrystal’s ~$60,000-$80,000 speeches, here is one from Stanford.
Who Pays the Bills
We see how much politicians gain from the Racket, but who is paying for this? The cost is measured in different ways. First, our Veterans are still paying the cost as they were when Butler wrote his piece. Next is the millions of lives across the world that have died as fuel for the war machine, often yielding no positive outcome for America. Lastly the tax payers, robbed and over burdened by debt and inflation, keep losing out monetarily.
Veterans
This hasn’t changed much since 1935, Veterans pay a high cost to keep the war machine running. Butler described the process well enough it bears simply copying it here:
Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face"; to regard murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or of being killed.
Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about face"! This time they had to do their own readjusting, sans mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice, sans nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more. So we scattered them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades.
Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face" alone.
I’ve written before about how we are conditioned to accept death and war casualties. The conditioning we all experience is nothing in comparison to that which is instilled in us in the military. ‘Yut Kill’ was a common thing to hear in response to about anything. Trying to time your machine gun bursts? “Die Motherfucker Die!” should be about right. The list goes on but you get the idea. The mass psychology that Butler referenced was turned into a literal science following WW2 to ensure our troops would consistently engage the enemy when the time came. This article provides some added information for those interested.
We were also instilled with (or came with) the desire for decorations. This love of medals and ribbons isn’t new, Butler wrote of it as well, citing Napoleon “All men are enamored of decorations… they positively hunger for them”. Ask any infantryman which is most important in a stack and barring the presence of medals for valor, the Combat Action Ribbon (CAR) holds the most prestige. For me it was elusive, my ‘combat’ in Iraq was limited to a few incoming rocket attacks. I later volunteered to extend to go to Afghanistan, at least in part, to obtain that ‘missing’ ribbon. Near the end of our workup, paperwork errors left me with the choice of re-enlisting or getting out (I got out).
I say this to show you the culture in the military, it gives our troops a support system. A meta-analysis for Combat-Related PTSD shows us that ‘Discharging a weapon’ and ‘seeing someone wounded/killed’ are leading risk factors for PTSD, yet being ‘active’ military, reduces the risk of PTSD [14]. Part of the problem our troops face is that the support system of military culture is gone once they return home. That ‘final about face’ that Butler mentions is returning to a world that doesn’t want to know about violence. The American people vote for and support wars but want to avoid any of the messy details.
The Final About Face
Veteran unemployment is low with a rate of 3.1 across all veterans in 2022. When we look a bit deeper into the employment numbers there is some room for concern. In the post 9/11 Veterans roughly 20% of them are not in the labor force[15]. This means either they never sought work (perhaps due to disability or other life factors) or they gave up on seeking work. For a group that is struggling to find purpose post service, I believe lacking employment is a significant risk.
A 2002 study showed that Divorce or separation amongst combat veterans is 62% more likely than amongst the general population [16]. PTSD has been associated with higher rates of divorce, substance abuse and various other problematic symptoms. One of the things I see veterans struggle most with is losing their kids via a divorce or separation. There is a very real cost of sending our young men and women overseas, it can quite literally destroy families and lives.
The chart below depicts suicide rates per 100k in the US, the blue shades are Veterans, the red shades are total US population. General population information is from the CDC [17] and the veteran data is from the VA [18]. The last ‘about face’ that Butler describes too often ends in suicide. In 2001 for 18-34 years old, the overall suicide rate was 9.4 per 100k, for veterans it was 23.5. In 2011, it was 10.3 for general population and 32.3 for Veterans. In 2020 it was 13.1 for general population and 46.3 for Veterans.
We owe it to our young men and women serving in the military to make war a true last resort. Many advocate ‘taking care of us’ when we return (at least in rhetoric), we need to also do our best to never send our troops in the first place.
Note: Bill Buppert covers “Moral Injury” in this episode of his Chasing Ghosts podcast, I encourage those interested in this ‘cost’ (especially fellow veterans) to listen.
Tax Payers
As I assume many of you read ‘America’s Waning Power’ I’m not going to cover (too much) in regards to our ballooning inflation and debt, you can read about that here. The key points are that our purchasing power is about 3% of what it was before the Federal Reserve act (1913) and we have $34 Trillion in debt now compared to $391 Billion in 1971.
We spent roughly $3 Trillion on our Iraq war, a war that we did not need to fight [19]. We spent $2.3 Trillion on the Afghanistan War [20]. I don’t know if this include the billions of dollars in equipment we left behind when we admitted defeat and evacuated from the country.
As a glimpse into the cost of our empire, we have 11 aircraft carriers, each strike group costs $6.5 million per day to operate[21]. Totaling $71.5 million per day for all 11 carrier groups. $26 billion per year. Below it is pictured where the ‘department of defense’ has our fleets located. One is near the United States, we have COAST GUARD ships near Indonesia and Australia.
Recently Biden asked for $850 Billion defense budget. Our elected officials are not only taxing us ‘now’ in return for their bribes, they are taking on debt in return for their bribes. This is debt that your kids and grandkids will have to deal with, in one way or another.
How to smash the Racket
“It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war” — General Smedley Butler
This portion is different than most of my writing as it is proposals, ideas (some more thought out than others) on how to ‘smash the racket’ .
Profits
I detailed above the many ways that congress and other profit from war. The first step in avoiding war is in taking the profits out, then it lies in adding a cost. For congress there are a few ‘rules’ I think would help to offset the warmongers.
No individual stock purchasing and no foreign investments, can own US-stock index funds that exclude defense stocks. A defense stock will be defined as any company who receives more than 15% of their revenue from the DOD.
No proxy holdings either, if a company owns >5% stake in a defense company they are added to the blacklist.
ONLY 2 methods of campaign contributions
direct (a person/company contributes directly to an individual campaign)
interest ( a person/company contributes to an interest and it is distributed as described below)
No PACS, No Super PACS, NO shell agencies of any types with the intent of ‘gaming’ the donation limits described below.
Implement a cap on Direct Contributions
a 2023 analysis shows that the median fundraising for someone running for reelection in 2022 was $2.1 million. a freshman raised median $2.9 million , an incumbent in a ‘toss up’ raised median of $5.3 million. Senators running for reelection raised $11.4 million [23]. Where do these people loyalties lie? With the people and government paying them ~$174,000 salary or ‘special interests’ paying millions?
Cap direct contributions at
House: 3x salary (meaning the most they could raise is $522,000)
Senate: 5x salary
President: 10x salary
Require a survey to accompany any donations
It is a lot harder to interpret 10,000 $200 donations from constituents than it is to interpret a $2 million donation from Lockheed PAC.
This proposed survey will require individual to assign percentages to a variety of political categories, thus showing the recipient what is ‘important’ to the donors and showing the voters who is supporting each candidate
Rather than limit individual donations to each campaign, limit donations to each level/category
House: $3,300 Limit
Senate: $3,300 Limit
President: $3,300 Limit
Issue contributions
Allow for issue contributions at each federal level. Individuals may donate to a cause, they can use any amount of their individual contribution limit + 1/5 of their annual contribution limit.
Cap interest contributions at
House: 1.5x salary (meaning the most they could raise is $261,000)
Senate: 2.5x salary
President: 5x salary
Candidates assign ‘interests’ a percentage totaling to 100%. the amount raised there is divided up based on the % given. Any remaining is rolled into the next election.
candidate A:
Defense: 50%
2A rights: 10%
Anti-Abortion: 20%
etc…
candidate B:
2A rights: 30%
Federal legalization of weed: 20%
School Choice: 30%
etc…
since both assign a % to 2A rights, candidate B will get 3x the amount as candidate A. Candidate A would get ‘all’ of the “defense” donations, but at least people would see where their interests are. Remember this is still capped as described above.
FEC directory
As the ability to run expensive & flashy campaigns is eliminated, we still want to ensure people get to know who they are voting for. The FEC will utilize the Presidential public funding of elections budget detailed here to maintain a directory for those who file and meet the obligation required to be on their ballets. The directory will include:
campaign websites
individual campaign donation information broken down by stated interests
% the candidate elected to receive of the various interests.
The distribution of individual donation interests and the percentage the candidate chose to accept will also be printed and provided with or on the ballets. At minimum the top 3 interests from each will be printed directly on the ballet to ensure that is visible.
Congressional healthcare plans will be replaced with the access to the VA Health System. Their minor dependents can still be enrolled in the current healthcare plan.
Add a cost. If your representative votes for war YOU pay a war tax (2% for house, 1% for Senate, .5% for President). Income from this ‘war tax’ can only be spent on Veteran Benefits. If you are unhappy about it then vote them out or make them change their vote. This tax must NOT be automatically deducted. It must be paid via a manual process of either online banking or writing a check.
Acts of War
Congress has done its best to avoid their Constitutional duties. They skirt the war powers so that they can have deniability. This must not be allowed to continue. We need to require single issue bills for any troops or vessels to leave the territory or waters of the United States. Our “economic zone” includes several Pacific Islands now, so language has to accommodate troop movements to and from there. Inter-zone travel between the ‘mainland’ US and the Pacific Islands would be allowed but can not travel further west than the Guam economic zone nor further south than the American Samoa economic zone in their transit between zones.
Each bill must include the below structure. As a requirement for the introduction of the ‘final draft’ of the bill for floor vote, each member of congress may submit their own proposal for each or any section. As determined in meeting the 1/5th threshold for a “yea and Nay” vote [24], a 1/10th support for a submission allows it to be included in the final voting of the bills language. Each proposal that met the 1/10th support for each section must receive a recorded vote to determine the final language of the bill. The runner up for each category will also be recorded and presented on the bill.
Orientation
Situation
Mission
Cost
direct
opportunity
Goal
Best Possible Outcome
Resulting Loss of Life
Friendly
Adversary
Worst Possible Outcome
Resulting Loss of Life
Friendly
Adversary
Blowback potential
Terrorist attacks?
Reputation loss?
War
non-peer
near-peer
peer
multi-state/actors
mitigation/expansion dollar costs
mitigation/expansion Loss of Life
Deployment/Mission Bill, an example
Orientation
We, the United States Congress have a belief that, left unchecked China may invade Taiwan. Taiwan is a major chip producer and considered by many a ‘key strategic location’.
Situation
Carrier group consists of 7500 sailors and 7 ships including the following classes:
aircraft carrier, missile cruisers, anti-aircraft ships and destroyers
China has significant long range anti-ship missiles as well as nuclear capabilities. They have ‘x’ aircraft and …. (you get the idea)
Mission
The USS Too Expensive carrier and whatever carrier group will head to and patrol the waters along a designated route that is designed to show presence but not provoke attack by taking an overly aggressive route. This will occur on the 15 day of May 2024 to the 15th day of August 2024.
Cost
Direct
$6.5 million per day
Opportunity
Joint operations off Australian Cost will not be conducted
Goal
ensure China doesn’t invade Taiwan
Best Possible Outcome
no event, peace maintains
Resulting Loss of Life
Friendly = 0
Adversary = 0
Worst Possible Outcome
adopted
Immediate Loss of Life
Friendly = 7500
Adversary = 8000
Blowback potential
Terrorist attacks?
likely
Reputation loss?
likely
War
Peer war with other state and non-state actors.
mitigation/expansion dollar costs
Measured in trillions of dollars
mitigation/expansion Loss of Life
Friendly = millions
Adversary = millions
runner up (not adopted)
Immediate Loss of Life
Friendly = 500
Adversary = 700
Blowback potential
Terrorist attacks?
likely
Reputation loss?
likely
War
Not likely
mitigation/expansion dollar costs
Measured in Billions of dollars
mitigation/expansion Loss of Life
Friendly = Hundreds
Adversary = Thousands
To Hell with War
While during Butler’s time the war was sold as a ‘war to end all wars’ , the wars today are sold as a necessity because ‘they hate us for our freedom’. The reality is our foreign policy is a disaster that spawns new enemies via collateral damage and the resulting blowback. The war machine, the racket, quite literally supplies a war for the next generation of suffering fueled profits.
American troops place an extraordinary amount of trust in the American people and the American government, a trust that it truly does not deserve. While our troops place their lives and perhaps their very souls on the line for ‘the mission’ Congress (as mentioned) dodges their duty of wielding the War Powers. The people can hardly be bothered to remember we are at war. We saw in Iraq, within a few years of the war we experienced ‘buyers Warmonger remorse’. The troops who sacrificed for this ‘wrong decision’ cannot so easily unwind the price they paid. Its not just taxes for them. We have a responsibility to ensure if we send troops out of our borders it is an absolute necessity and a good, moral cause.
The idea that we can ‘secure Democracy’ or ‘spread Democracy’ by fighting around the world has been proven false time and again. As Butler stated following World War One “Well, eighteen years after, the world has less of a democracy than it had then”. Since 2001, that is CERTAINLY true. The “Patriot” act, NSA spying, ‘Citizens United’, controlled media, militarized police all show the failure of this Racket to ‘secure Democracy’. These and many other examples are direct infringements upon our freedom. If you want to ‘secure our freedom’ keep our troops home on DEFENSE. If you want to spread Democracy return America to the shining city upon the hill, not this bloodstained husk dealing with dictators for influence.
Conclusion
Our warmongering will come with a cost, even if we feel safe and secure today. The cost will not be ‘just’ debt, inflation and taxes. Be it from terror or war on foreign soil, the blowback for our Racket will cost the blood and lives of Americans. With increased frequency the state demands we sacrifice our freedoms for the Racket. The Freedoms that Butler described as ‘the only thing worth going to war for’ are now demanded as a cost of our wars. Make no mistake, the loss of freedom for us will be light, but it will grow heavier each year and come to full weight when our kids and grandkids are grown. These are the burdens our wars demand.
In Common Sense Neutrality Butler asks mothers to ‘hang onto the love you bear your boys’ when you hear a ‘well-delivered war speech’. I ask that we all look to our sons, perhaps now even our daughters. If you are rattling an old sabre, look at your grandkids. Are America’s wars worth sacrificing them? Is our cause so just I can ask my kids to kill for it? If you wouldn’t ask it of your own kids, why do we allow it to be asked of others? Our troops deserve better, their parents deserve better, our kids deserve better. Demand Peace.
American Victory
“A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils…And it gives ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without Odium, sometimes even with popularity…”
Diligent Gear
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An excellent piece, thank you.
Speaking of 'piece', you have a typo in your text:
" It is a fantastic peace" you meant to say " It is a fantastic piece"....
As Chairman, CEO and only member of the Neutralist Association of the US, I am jealous of this and hope it spreads far and wide.