FINAL COPA DE SU MAJESTAD EL REY

 

                                

Un bien armado batallón militarizado del clero,

"Dios, Patria y Rey",

organizado por el Estado,

se apostó en un simulado estadio

a la espera de recibir las ordenes oportunas

de intervenir en caso de que la pitada

alcanzara algoritmos insultantes

al himno del Estado, y, consecuentemente,

a Su Majestad el Rey, Jefe del Estado

ad infinitum generationem

 

La Comisión Antiviolencia advirtió a los dos equipos que una pitada al himno del Estado español, y, por lo tanto, a su Jefe de Estado, Su Majestad el Rey, podría traer multas. Las sanciones también pueden caer sobre los silbadores. Una vez formulada la advertencia la gente optó por descargarse una aplicación que emitió el sonido del silbido. Es una aplicación sencilla que sólo ofrece éste servicio. Está hecha especialmente para la afrenta y la confrontación. Gracias a éste medio tecnológico la pitada se dió sin objeto de multa, aúnque los servicios jurídicos del organismo estudiarán a fondo la manera de sancionar la acción.

 

Debido a ello y, afortunadamente,

 el batallón militarizado del clero,

"Dios, Patria y Rey",

no se vió en la necesidad de intervenír,

con lo que se evitó un derramamiento de sangre.

 

A pesar de ello, algunos críticos temen que,

ante la impotencia del pueblo español,

éste empiece a usar el silbido 

como única opción disponible

en la lucha de clases,

máxime cuándo es un arma que,

como decíamos, puede descargarse

de una aplicación

que emite muy bien el silbido,

con lo cúal las autoridades

no podrían inculpar a los sopladores

bucales de tal sonido.

 

Muchos otros se han quejado

porque han dicho que estan lo mismo que antes

porque a Franco, cuándo se celebraba

 la Copa del Generalísimo,

 tampoco se le podía silbar,

tan sólo, claro, privadamente,

cuándo cada cúal estaba en su casa

y con la puerta cerrada,

para que no lo oyeran los vecinos.

 

Esperemos que para la próxima

Copa Su Majestad el Rey

los silbidos se hayan legalizado

para que el pueblo español

pueda incrementar su eficacia

con ésta importante arma de clase

que, por derecho propio,

en su lucha, le pertenece.

THE SOM 1-01, EXTRATERRESTRIAL ENTITIES AND TECCHNOLOGY, RECOVERY AND DISPOSAL (ROBERT HASTING CREE QUE ESTOS DOCUMENTOS NO SON AUTENTICOS)

                                   

     
 Special Operations Manual 1-01

by Jan Aldrich

Dec 1996

from VirtuallyStrange Website

recovered through WayBackMachine Website

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::: 

 

What follows is the table of contents from this manual and a few excerpts/summaries:

"Chapter 1. OPERATiON MAJESTIC-12
Section I. Project purpose and goals
Chapter 2. INTRODUCTION
Section I. General
Section II. Definition and data
Chapter 3. RECOVERY OPERATIONS
Section I. Security
Section II. Technology recovery
Chapter 4. RECEIVING AND HANDLING
Section I. Handling upon receipt of material
Chapter 5. EXTRATERRESTRIAL BIOLOGICAL ENTITIES
Section I. Living organisms
Section 2. Non-living organisms
Chapter 6. GUIDE TO UFO IDENTIFICATION
Section I. UFOB guide
Section II. Identification criteria
Section III. Possible origins
Appendix I. REFERENCES
Appendix Ia. FORMS
Appendix II. MAJIC-12 GROUP PERSONNEL
Appendix III. PHOTOGRAPHS"

CHAPTER 1, Section I: (pg. 2)

“2. General
MJ-12 takes the subject of UFOBs, Extraterrestrial Technology, and Extraterrestrial Biological Entities very seriously and considers the entire subject to be a matter of the very highest national security. For that reason everything relating to the subject has been assigned the very highest security classification. Three main points will be covered in this section.
a. The general aspects of MJ-12 to clear up any misconceptions that anyone may have.
b. The importance of the operations.
c. The need for absolute secrecy in all phases of operation.”
“4. History of the Group
Operation Majestic-12 was established by special classified presidential order on 24 September 1947 at the recommendation of Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal and Dr. Vannevar Bush, Chairman of the Joint Research and Development.”

CHAPTER 1, Section II: (pg. 5) 

1. Description of Craft

This document details 4 categories of UFOs (UFOBs):

1. Elliptical, or disc shape.
2. Fuselage or cigar shape.
3. Ovoid or circular shape.
4. Airfoil of triangular shape.

 

CHAPTER 3, Section II: (pg. 11)
“17. Extraterrestrial Technology Classification ______ (?)

1. Aircraft. – Intact, operational, or semi-intact aircraft of Extraterrestrial design and manufacture.
2. Intact device. – Any mechanical or electronic device or machine which appears to be undamaged and functional.
3. Damaged device. – Any mechanical or electronic device or machine which appears damaged but mostly complete.
4. Powerplant. – Devices and machines or fragments which are possible propulsion units, fuel, and associated control devices and ______(?).
5. Identified fragments. – Fragments composed of elements or materials easily recognized as known to current science and technology. i.e.: aluminum, magnesium, plastic, etc.
6. Unidentified fragments. – Fragments composed of elements or materials not known to current science and technology and which exhibit unusual or extraordinary characteristics.
7. Supplies and provisions. – Non-mechanical or non-electronic materials of a support nature such as clothing, personal belongings, organic ingestibles, etc.
8. Living entity.* – Living non-human organisms in apparent good or reasonable health.
9. Non-living entity. – Deceased non-human organisms or portions of organisms, organic remains and other suspect organic matter.
10. Media. – Printed matter, electronic recordings, maps, charts, photographs and film.
11. Weapons. – Any device or portion of a device thought to be offensive or defensive weaponry.

*Living entities must be contained in total isolation pending arrival of OPNAC personnel.”
I left out the “MJ-12 Code” and “Receiving facility” (of which “Area 51 S-4” was indicated for over half the entries, interestingly not for biological entities though) columns of the chart.
It then goes on in detail on how to package and un-package such samples.

 

Naturalmente, hay división de opiniones sobre la autenticidad de éstos documentos, pero no creo que éste sea el  nudo  gordiano  del tema, porque sean genuinos o  no, aqui se describe un lógico y coherente protocolo de  como actuar frente a la eventualidad de los hechos que se describen, los cuales son muy plausible que se hayan producido y se produzcan, es decir: creemos que el alto mando militar del régimen --el encargado de éste asunto, porque son los que realmente mandan--, conoce, sabe, y mantiene bien guardadita la información al respecto...por obvias razones. Hay demasiadas evidencias sobre ello para pensar lo contario.

 

A nosotros nos interesa el tema, no porque pensemos  que éste interés nos ayudará a conocer lo que hay detrás de los OVNI, sino porque nos ayuda a conocer qué es el hombre, qué clase de organización civico-militar es la sociedad humana en la Tierra dónde los intereses políticos-económicos establecidos controlan y suprimen cualquier acontecimiento que pueda perturbar esta tremenda concentración de poder en unas élites.

Porque una afirmación axiomática, como prueba de la base para mantener toda clase de sospechas al respecto, emerge de todo éste conundrum y es irrebatible,
y es ésta:

--Ningun gobierno del mundo,
de tener evidencias al respecto,
se atrevería a darselas al público:
NO PUEDEN:

Todo el  aparato de mentiras
e intereses económicos monopólicos
de unas pléyades
sobre los que se mantiene
la dictadura del sistema
se vendrían abajo.
Asi de fácil y elemental.

Pasa con los OVNI
lo mismo que ocurriría
con todo "OVNI"
que puedíera hacer peligrar
el orden, la seguridad y la estabilidad
bajo la cual, mañana,
miles de millones de esclavos asalariados
se tienen que levantar,
sin ser perturbados en lo mas mínimo,
para ir a trabajar, producir,
consumír y mantener a flote,
éste absurdo carnaval
que hemos desarrollado aqui en la Tierra
y que, por su fragilidad,
no podría enfrentar, sin colapsar,
cualquier perturbación estructural
que le desfonde sus falsos
e irracionales principios y metas:
Se vendría abajo todo el Negocio.
Y la seguridad del Negocio es lo primero.

El Universo,
sus misterios,
sus criaturas,
sus curiosidades y abismos
...a pesar de "la inquietud que aparentamos
tener por si hay vida en otros planetas"...
eso es secundario...
Si no, un piloto de la aviación comercial
no tendría que sentir que puede perder su trabajo
al reportarle en el aeropuerto
--a esos mismos que "ansian saber
si hay vida en otros mundos"--
que él y sus compañeros de cabina
han visto en los cielos un extraño cacharro
que, por sus maniobras,
no puede pertenecer a la tecnología humana,
porque la seguridad económica
de la compañia para la que vuela
es mucho mas importante
que la verdad de lo que se observa
en los cielos...

"UKRANIA: THE CIA COUP", OLIVER STONE

                                   

 

"The armed coup in Kiev is painfully similar to CIA operations to oust unwanted foreign leaders in Iran, Chile and Venezuela", said US filmmaker Oliver Stone after interviewing Ukraine’s ousted president for a documentary.

Stone spent four hours in Moscow talking to Viktor Yanukovich, who was deposed from power during the February 2014 coup, the filmmaker wrote on his Facebook page.

“Details to follow in the documentary, but it seems clear that the so-called ‘shooters’ who killed 14 police men, wounded some 85, and killed 45 protesting civilians, were outside third party agitators,” he said. “Many witnesses, including Yanukovych and police officials, believe these foreign elements were introduced by pro-Western factions – with CIA fingerprints on it.”

READ MORE: Reuters investigation exposes ‘serious flaws’ in Maidan massacre probe

The filmmaker added that the events in Kiev, which led to collapse of the Ukrainian government and imposition of a new one hostile towards Russia, were similar to those in other countries, which he called “America’s soft power technique called ‘Regime Change 101’.”

Historically those were CIA-perpetrated coups against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973 – both leaders with policies undesired by Washington or its allies.

READ MORE: Kiev snipers hired by Maidan leaders - leaked EU's Ashton phone tape
 
More recently there was the 2002 coup in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez was briefly deposed “after pro and anti-Chavez demonstrators were fired upon by mysterious shooters in office buildings” and the anti-government protests against Chavez’s successor Nicolas Maduro, which “was almost toppled by violence aimed at anti-Maduro protestors,” as Stone put it.

“A dirty story through and through, but in the tragic aftermath of this coup, the West has maintained the dominant narrative of ‘Russia in Crimea’ whereas the true narrative is ‘USA in Ukraine.’ The truth is not being aired in the West,” Stone wrote. “It’s a surreal perversion of history that’s going on once again, as in Bush pre-Iraq ‘WMD’ campaign. But I believe the truth will finally come out in the West, I hope, in time to stop further insanity.”

...................

He noted the similarities with other CIA overthrow operations such as the one that temporarily ousted Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, as well as Iran in 1953 and Chile in 1973. While the US and its allies have created the narrative that the crisis with Russia is about Russian actions in Crimea and Ukraine, the reality is that it has been the US that has been involved in Ukraine and which precipitated the crisis.

Faced with unexpected hostility over his post, Oliver Stone followed up with another statement clarifying that his conclusions had nothing to do with an affection for Yanukovich, who he said may well be the most corrupt president Ukraine ever had, but that the real point is the issue of US involvement in Ukraine's internal affairs. Wrote Stone today:

[T]here is ample evidence of pro-Western, third party interference, beginning with Victoria Nuland, John McCain, USAID, National Endowment for Democracy (who apparently organize very well on Facebook and Twitter), etc. Why for instance are so many policemen dead and wounded, and yet no one has investigated this in the new government?

Stone clearly understands how the regime change machine works, where the US politicians, government agencies, and government-funded "NGOs" work in concert toward a singular US government goal.

Stone even understands how important the use of social media is to the regime changers. Recall how many times the State Department spokesperson would with a straight face inform journalists that evidence for US claims about a Russian invasion of Ukraine or the Russian shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 could be found in "social media."

Indeed, through such US government programs as the Alliance of Youth Movements and Movements.org, the US government actually trains activists overseas how to use social media to help overthrow their own governments.

Will Oliver Stone's fame and stature help create cracks in the wall of US government and mainstream media propaganda about the US role in the Ukrainian coup? We can only hope so.

---

Copyright © 2015 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

No podemos resistir la viceversa:
Imaginémosnos si Rusia
hubiése dado un Golpe de Estado en México.
¿Cómo hubiéra reaccionado
la Comunidad Internacioanal?
Esto da una idea del existente BUF,
Brainwashing Under Freedom,
y del programado, calculado y masivo
idiotismo de la población en general.
 

EN MEMORIA DE LOS QUE SIGUIERON LUCHANDO DESPUES DE LA GUERRA EN ESPAÑA CONTRA EL TERRORISMO CAPITALISTA DE FRANCO

Cuando entro en contacto con estas Noticias, me ocurre ésto: Primero, me digo: "Bah...ésto es ya pasado; ¿a quíen le puede interesar éstos hechos en la España actual"? Hoy hay otros problemas, otras circunstancias, otra clase de lucha y necesidad". Y lo que pasa es que despues de hilvanarlo en mi mente...comienzo a sentir las voces, los latidos, los heroismos, los sacrificios, las esperanzas, los dolores y sufrimientos de éstos seres y sus familias, que, como si salieran del misterio de los campos mórficos  del subconsciente colectivo, me dicen: "Nosotros fuimos los combatientes que luchamos por la genuina democracia, por las ventajas y beneficios que se obtuvieron despues, nosotros regamos con nuestra sangre las plantas que vosotros pudisteis cosechar despues...¿y nos habeis dejado en el anonimato, en el repudio, y nadie ni nada ha valorado nunca nuestra total entrega a una lucha a la que solo se llegaba por el heroismo y la dignidad personal; ¿y nos habeis abandonado, y al monstruo contra el que peleamos le permitis estar siendo venerado en una basilica santa y aun hay calles y plazas que llevan aquellos nombres que asaltaron y masacraron la patria?
Y aqui estan.
Olvidarlos también en ésta bitacora seria la misma
monstruosidad contra la que ellos lucharon.
Mientras los recordemos sus heroismos no fueron en vano.

 

¡Ni cautivo ni desarmado!

En memoria de los que siguieron

y siguen luchando

 

Florencio Martín Benítez "Vicente del Puerto"

Partida dirigida por Florencio Martín Benítez “Vicente del Puerto”, uno de los cinco hermanos, junto a Cándido “Rafaelito del Puerto”, José “Pedro”, Julián “Daniel” y Rodrigo “Manolo” naturales de Villanueva de Duque, aunque vecinos de Villaviciosa de Córdoba, todos ellos de ideología anarquista, que se echaron al monte en 1946 tras la represión que se desencadenó en el pueblo.
  
Esta partida se integrará en la 3ª agrupación guerrillera con base en Villaviciosa pero con actuación por las provincias de Sevilla, Badajoz y en la propia Córdoba, en la que curiosamente las relaciones entre comunistas y anarquistas son bastante fluidas y colaboran sin problemas.

De hecho, entre las partidas de “Godoy del Pueblo”, “Polanco”, (Comunistas ambos) y las de “Vicente del Puerto” y “Durruti” (anarquistas), hay bastante intercambio de miembros y suelen actuar a menudo conjuntamente, también cabe remarcar que estas partidas son acusadas de abusar de la violencia.
  

Algunos de los integrantes habituales del grupo son Miguel García Vázquez “Botasfinas”, Antonio Muñoz Vega “Luquillas”, José Ramos Palomares “Ramillos”, José Fernández Invernón “Victoriano”, Joaquín Muñoz Figueroa “Chimeno” o Juan Muñoz Fernández “Juan y Medio”.
 

        
Cándido martín "Rafaelito del Puerto"   Miguel García "Botasfinas"

Esta partida mantendrá su actuación desde mediados del año 46 hasta 1950, siendo sus principales zonas de actuación, primero la propia Villaviciosa de Córdoba, Hornachuelos y la cuenca de Peñarroya, pasando después a la zona norte de la provincia de Sevilla, e incluso en verano del 49 llegan a los limites de la provincia de Huelva.
  
La primera noticia que tenemos de este grupo es su participación el 20 de abril del 47 en un secuestro en Villaviciosa, el 9 de agosto, secuestran y ahorcan a Manuel Díaz Santiago por confidente.
  

Durante el año 48, mas concretamente en enero, los encontramos en Navas de la Concepción donde secuestran a Manuel Bermejo en colaboración con otras partidas, posteriormente, junto a los de “Polanco” vuelven hacia Hornachuelos donde realizan pintadas y unos días después, ajustician al guarda Antonio Ramos Pérez.

 

El 3 de febrero descubren a Manuel Flor Sánchez, quien sube comida para los guardias apostados en una finca y que también será ahorcado.

 

En mayo encontramos al grupo en el término de Constantina, realizando un asalto en “Viña Morón”. A mediados de junio reconocen a “Vicente del Puerto” y “Juan y Medio” tras un golpe en la finca “la Pesebrera” en el termino de las Navas de la Concepción.

 

A mediados de julio tienen un tiroteo con “los civiles” en los alrededores de Guadalcanal. El 17 secuestran a Enrique Meléndez, el 24 dan una paliza a dos arrendatarios que les habían denunciado a los guardias.

 

El 23 de octubre, en las cercanías de la Mezquitilla del Calvo, tirotean a una patrulla hiriendo a un guardia y a dos somatenes.

 

El 16 de noviembre mantienen otro tiroteo sin percances. También durante este año es ajusticiado por sus propios compañeros Julián Martín Benítez, desconociéndose la causa y fecha exacta.
 

El 49 será un mal año para la guerrilla cordobesa, aún así, el 23 de marzo, junto a los de “Durruti” perpetran un secuestro en Cazalla de la Sierra, el 29 del mismo muere José Martín Benítez junto a dos compañeros en Villaharta.

 

En mayo los caídos serán “Luquillas” y su pequeña partida en Villaviciosa.
  

En verano los encontramos en los límites de la provincia de Huelva y tras un tiroteo con la guardia civil el guerrillero Alfredo Moreno perderá un ojo.

 

El 2 de octubre, ajusticiaron al guerrillero “Chato” por robar un reloj a una mujer y emborracharse a menudo.

 

En los dos últimos meses del año realizan un secuestro y un atraco en el Pedroso y el secuestro de Manuel Tena en Cazalla.

 

 El hostigamiento a los campesinos mandó a muchos de ellos a la sierra.

 

El año 50 empieza con los guerrilleros agrupados, lo que queda de las partidas de “Durruti”, “Godoy del Pueblo” y “Vicente del Puerto”, los grupos se separan en marzo y junto a “Vicente del Puerto” ya solo están su hermano Candido, “Ramillos”, “Victorino” y “el Bala”.

 

El 26 la guardia civil gracias a una delación, localiza y da muerte a “Juan y Medio” en el término de Constantina.

 

El 21 de agosto morirán tras un tiroteo “Rafaelito del Puerto” y “Victorino”. Poco tiempo después, esconden las armas y se ponen a trabajar en algunos cortijos.

 

Para finales de año, “Ramillos” y “el Bala” retoman la guerrilla mientras Florencio Martín Benítez se traslada a Sevilla tratando de pasar inadvertido.
  

“Ramillos” morirá el 3 de febrero del 51 en el término de Almodóvar del Río, “el Bala” caerá el 20 de marzo cerca de Andújar y “Vicente del Puerto” será detenido en Sevilla el 22 de junio.

 

Su consejo de guerra se celebra en abril del 53 y será finalmente ejecutado junto a Antonio Serrano Ruiz “Mohino” el 11 de mayo en el cementerio de Sevilla.                                                     

José Ramos "Ramillos"

                                                                      
  Fuentes: La resistencia armada contra Franco (Moreno Gómez), Republicanos en la guerrilla de Sierra Morena (Mª Victoria Fernández Luceño) y http://losdelasierra.info/
  

Etiquetas:

guerrilleros Andalucía

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 

Ya hemos señalizado (miembros del movimiento memorialista), de alguna manera, las CINCO FOSAS COMUNES con cerca de cuatro mil represaliados y represaliadas del franquismo entre julio de 1936 y mayo de 1953.

 

La verdad es que la primera se consiguió que el Ayuntamiento, gobernado por Monteseirin, pusiera un monolito en el 2002. La última de ellas, la de “los Disidentes” era una verdadera desconocida para la mayoría de nosotros que el sábado 23/05, a las 11,30 horas, decidimos poner una flores en el lugar, y como el día era el más propicio “reflexionamos” sobre todo lo que oculta esta ciudad a sus vecinos y vecinas en materia de represión franquista y de los silencios sobre este asunto por parte de los gobiernos de la ciudad.

Es incomprensible que Sevilla aún mantenga sin señalizar adecuadamente CUATRO FOSAS COMUNES con miles de cuerpos.

 

¡¡¡VOLVEREMOS!!! cada dos o tres meses a poner flores y fotografias de las víctimas, hasta conseguir que sus nombres figuren públicamente (ojala que también en el Registro Civil), su espacio sea respetado y sus huesos rescatados del silencio.

 

Allí dejamos, pegado en un cipres, un texto biográfico, coincidiendo con el 62º aniversario del fusilamiento del guerrillero anarcosindicalista:

 

FLORENCIO MARTÍN BENÍTEZ. Villanueva del Duque (Córdoba). 1917 – Sevilla. 11 mayo 1953.

 

El texto dice:

 

Conocido en la guerrilla por el alias de “Vicente del Puerto”, Florencio Martín Benítez, hijo de José y Francisca, nació en la localidad cordobesa de Villanueva del Duque el año 1917, si bien, siguiendo el periplo laboral de sus padres, avecindó de joven en Villaviciosa, localidad donde le cogió el golpe militar del 18 de Julio de 1936 y de la que salió semanas más tarde para incorporarse a un batallón del Regimiento de Milicias de Jaén.

 

Finalizada la guerra pasaría varios meses en el Campo de Prisioneros de Peñarroya antes de regresar a Villaviciosa, donde pudo reintegrarse a la vida civil.

A primeros de agosto de 1941 fue detenido por la Guardia Civil de la localidad acusado de actuar de enlace para la guerrilla, de resultas de lo cual fue condenado a tres años de reclusión que cumpliría en las instalaciones de la Prisión Provincial de Córdoba.

 

A finales de mayo de 1944, cumplida la condena, salió de prisión para continuar trabajando en el campo hasta que el 10 de junio de 1946 se incorporó junto a sus hermanos Julián, Rodrigo, José y Cándido a la guerrilla del Gorrión, después de que este los convenciera para que se unieran a ellos.

 

Al año siguiente, después de pasar varios meses como asistente de Bellota (Manuel Hidalgo Medina), Jefe de la 31 División del Ejército Guerrillero de Andalucía, “Godoy del Pueblo”, Comandante del 150 Batallón, lo nombraría Jefe de Guerrilla, asignándole como zona de actuación la comprendida entre los términos municipales de Navas de la Concepción y Constantina. En la reorganización de 1948, se uniría a “Ventura Durruti” (Dionisio Habas Rodríguez) junto a quien permaneció hasta finales de 1950 cuando el grupo decidió auto-disolverse y abandonar la lucha armada.

 

Amparado por el Comité Regional de la CNT de Sevilla pasó, en la clandestinidad, a trabajar en una vaquería del barrio sevillano del Fontanal, con documentación falsa proporcionada por la Organización bajo el nombre de Antonio Fernández Aguilar, donde fue detenido el día 21 de Junio de 1951 tras la delación de su ex compañero “Voluntario”.

 

Condenado a la última pena en el Consejo de Guerra celebrado en la Capitanía General de Sevilla el 12 de Diciembre de 1952, el 11 de Mayo de 1953 fue fusilado por un piquete de la Guardia Civil “a las cinco y treinta horas, al costado derecho de la tapia del Cementerio de San Fernando de Sevilla”, lugar donde su cadáver sería inhumado en la fosa común llamada de Disidentes.

 

http://www.todoslosnombres.org/content/noticias/sevilla-reflexionar-en-l

http://rojoynegro.info/articulo/se%C3%B1alizando-reflexionando-la-fosa-com%C3%BAn-los-disidentes-del-cementerio-sevilla 

TODO ES UNA ESPERA, UNA LARGA ESPERA...

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera
de violines rotos
y desvanes colmados
como si nunca se acabara
lo terminado,
como si el rayo de luz
fuese eclípse ensamblado.

Todo es un espera,
una larga espera
de proyectos esfumados,
un juego de péndulos parados,
y en medio,
el naufragio del hombre,
intentandolo,
siempre intentandolo,
llegar a una falsa costa
de periscopios equivocados.

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
sin caminos,
sin mapas,
sin resultados,
sin señales
que puedan indicarnos
cuánto falta
y cuándo llegamos.

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera
de ojos y oídos tapados
dónde el espejismo
impone sus leyes y candados
para tan sólo alcanzar,
conatos,
anzuelos,
simulacros.

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
dónde la respuesta
nunca llega,
dónde nace la estela
del arcano barco,
dónde la fragalidad y lo sólido
se turnan en avisarnos
y la contradicción
inicia sus bordados.

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
en la que hilvanamos
una salida al túnel
dónde estamos encerrados,
esa profunda galería
por dónde transita
el instante y la eternidad,
la mariposa y el gusano.

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
de un retorno aplazado
que no entendemos,
que no desagua
a ningún lago,
que deshiela la piedra
y que desvía los pájaros.

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
que todos heredamos,
una anillo ancestral
que nos pasamos
para ver si un día tocamos
el horizonte
del que nos alejamos...

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
desde el alfa al omega
que nos han asignado,
desde la entrada a la salida
por dónde llegamos
y nos vamos,
un meandro
de ríos embalsamados
con las fábulas
que nos contamos... 

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
un espeso marcapasos
que llevamos clavado
para que regule la ansiedad
de lo efimero,
de lo caduco,
de lo que viaja sin vuelta
a lo deseado.

Todo es una espera,
una larga espera
del Ser y el Tiempo
--Sein und Zeit--
que diluyen disfraces
y se embozan
en sus cuadros
a ver quíen de los dos
asesina al artista
que los ha pintado...

...Juega un niño, afuera,
entre árboles y soledades,
y dejo de escribir
y me quedo mirandolo.
Parece que no sabe
que el Ser y el Tiempo
lo estan dibujando,
que el avestruz
que corre tras él
en brazos
lo está llevando

...Ni conoce
que todo es una espera,
una larga espera,
en la que siempre,
en espiral,
estamos flotando...
 

MEMORIAL DAY EN LOS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

War Is A Racket By Major General Smedley Butler

Memorial Day commemorates soldiers killed in war. We are told that the war dead died for us and our freedom. US Marine General Smedley Butler challenged this view. He said that our soldiers died for the profits of the bankers, Wall Street, Standard Oil, and the United Fruit Company. Here is an excerpt from a speech that he gave in 1933:

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers.

There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to.

I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, 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 benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
 
       :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Contents

Chapter 1: War Is A Racket

Chapter 2: Who Makes The Profits?

Chapter 3: Who Pays The Bills?

Chapter 4: How To Smash This   Racket!

Chapter 5: To Hell With War!

Smedley Darlington Butler

• Born: West Chester, Pa., July 30, 1881
• Educated: Haverford School
• Married: Ethel C. Peters, of Philadelphia, June 30, 1905
• Awarded two congressional medals of honor:
  1. capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914
  2. capture of Ft. Riviere, Haiti, 1917
• Distinguished service medal, 1919
• Major General - United States Marine Corps
• Retired Oct. 1, 1931
• On leave of absence to act as
  director of Dept. of Safety, Philadelphia, 1932
• Lecturer -- 1930's
• Republican Candidate for Senate, 1932
• Died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, June 21, 1940
• For more information about Major General Butler,
  contact the United States Marine Corps.

CHAPTER ONE War Is 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.  

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.  

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few -- the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.  

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor.   

The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people -- not those who fight and pay and die -- only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.  

There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.

Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be dancers?
Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being trained for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce in "International Conciliation," the publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:

"And above all, Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. . . . War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it."

Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war -- anxious for it, apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too.   

There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner or later.

Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to peace. France only recently increased the term of military service for its youth from a year to eighteen months.  

Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose. In the Orient the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous international bankers were financing Japan. Now the trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is about $90,000,000 a year. 

Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of less than $200,000,000.

Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war -- a war that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and mentally unbalanced men.  

Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit -- fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.

Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.
But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?  

What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits? Yes, and what does it profit the nation?

Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside the mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a little more than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of the Father of our country. We forgot George Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired outside territory. At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over $25,000,000,000. Our total favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a purely bookkeeping basis, we ran a little behind year for year, and that foreign trade might well have been ours without the wars.  

It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets, brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always transferred to the people -- who do not profit.

 
CHAPTER TWO Who Makes The Profits?
The World War, rather our brief participation in it, has cost the United States some $52,000,000,000. Figure it out. That means $400 to every American man, woman, and child. And we haven't paid the debt yet.  

We are paying it, our children will pay it, and our children's children probably still will be paying the cost of that war.

The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits -- ah! that is another matter -- twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent -- the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's get it.  

Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket -- and are safely pocketed. Let's just take a few examples:

Take our friends the du Ponts, the powder people -- didn't one of them testify before a Senate committee recently that their powder won the war? Or saved the world for democracy? Or something? How did they do in the war? They were a patriotic corporation. Well, the average earnings of the du Ponts for the period 1910 to 1914 were $6,000,000 a year. It wasn't much, but the du Ponts managed to get along on it. Now let's look at their average yearly profit during the war years, 1914 to 1918. Fifty-eight million dollars a year profit we find! Nearly ten times that of normal times, and the profits of normal times were pretty good.  An increase in profits of more than 950 per cent.  

Take one of our little steel companies that patriotically shunted aside the making of rails and girders and bridges to manufacture war materials. Well, their 1910-1914 yearly earnings averaged $6,000,000. Then came the war. And, like loyal citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly turned to munitions making. Did their profits jump -- or did they let Uncle Sam in for a bargain? Well, their 1914-1918 average was $49,000,000 a year!

Or, let's take United States Steel. The normal earnings during the five-year period prior to the war were $105,000,000 a year. Not bad. Then along came the war and up went the profits. The average yearly profit for the period 1914-1918 was $240,000,000. Not bad.  

There you have some of the steel and powder earnings. Let's look at something else. A little copper, perhaps. That always does well in war times.

Anaconda, for instance. Average yearly earnings during the pre-war years 1910-1914 of $10,000,000. During the war years 1914-1918 profits leaped to $34,000,000 per year.  

Or Utah Copper. Average of $5,000,000 per year during the 1910-1914 period. Jumped to an average of $21,000,000 yearly profits for the war period.

Let's group these five, with three smaller companies. The total yearly average profits of the pre-war period 1910-1914 were $137,480,000. Then along came the war. The average yearly profits for this group skyrocketed to $408,300,000.
A little increase in profits of approximately 200 per cent.  

Does war pay? It paid them. But they aren't the only ones. There are still others. Let's take leather.

For the three-year period before the war the total profits of Central Leather Company were $3,500,000. That was approximately $1,167,000 a year. Well, in 1916 Central Leather returned a profit of $15,000,000, a small increase of 1,100 per cent. That's all.  

The General Chemical Company averaged a profit for the three years before the war of a little over $800,000 a year. Came the war, and the profits jumped to $12,000,000. a leap of 1,400 per cent.

International Nickel Company -- and you can't have a war without nickel -- showed an increase in profits from a mere average of $4,000,000 a year to $73,000,000 yearly. Not bad? An increase of more than 1,700 per cent.  

American Sugar Refining Company averaged $2,000,000 a year for the three years before the war. In 1916 a profit of $6,000,000 was recorded.

Listen to Senate Document No. 259. The Sixty-Fifth Congress, reporting on corporate earnings and government revenues. Considering the profits of 122 meat packers, 153 cotton manufacturers, 299 garment makers, 49 steel plants, and 340 coal producers during the war. Profits under 25 per cent were exceptional.  

For instance the coal companies made between 100 per cent and 7,856 per cent on their capital stock during the war. The Chicago packers doubled and tripled their earnings.

And let us not forget the bankers who financed the great war. If anyone had the cream of the profits it was the bankers. Being partnerships rather than incorporated organizations, they do not have to report to stockholders. And their profits were as secret as they were immense. How the bankers made their millions and their billions I do not know, because those little secrets never become public -- even before a Senate investigatory body.  

But here's how some of the other patriotic industrialists and speculators chiseled their way into war profits.  

Take the shoe people. They like war. It brings business with abnormal profits. They made huge profits on sales abroad to our allies. Perhaps, like the munitions manufacturers and armament makers, they also sold to the enemy. For a dollar is a dollar whether it comes from Germany or from France. But they did well by Uncle Sam too. For instance, they sold Uncle Sam 35,000,000 pairs of hobnailed service shoes. There were 4,000,000 soldiers. Eight pairs, and more, to a soldier. My regiment during the war had only one pair to a soldier. Some of these shoes probably are still in existence. They were good shoes. But when the war was over Uncle Sam has a matter of 25,000,000 pairs left over. Bought -- and paid for. Profits recorded and pocketed.

There was still lots of leather left. So the leather people sold your Uncle Sam hundreds of thousands of McClellan saddles for the cavalry. But there wasn't any American cavalry overseas! Somebody had to get rid of this leather, however. Somebody had to make a profit in it -- so we had a lot of McClellan saddles. And we probably have those yet.  

Also somebody had a lot of mosquito netting. They sold your Uncle Sam 20,000,000 mosquito nets for the use of the soldiers overseas. I suppose the boys were expected to put it over them as they tried to sleep in muddy trenches -- one hand scratching cooties on their backs and the other making passes at scurrying rats. Well, not one of these mosquito nets ever got to France!

Anyhow, these thoughtful manufacturers wanted to make sure that no soldier would be without his mosquito net, so 40,000,000 additional yards of mosquito netting were sold to Uncle Sam. 

There were pretty good profits in mosquito netting in those days, even if there were no mosquitoes in France. I suppose, if the war had lasted just a little longer, the enterprising mosquito netting manufacturers would have sold your Uncle Sam a couple of consignments of mosquitoes to plant in France so that more mosquito netting would be in order.  

Airplane and engine manufacturers felt they, too, should get their just profits out of this war. Why not? Everybody else was getting theirs. So $1,000,000,000 -- count them if you live long enough -- was spent by Uncle Sam in building airplane engines that never left the ground! Not one plane, or motor, out of the billion dollars worth ordered, ever got into a battle in France. Just the same the manufacturers made their little profit of 30, 100, or perhaps 300 per cent.

Undershirts for soldiers cost 14¢ [cents] to make and uncle Sam paid 30¢ to 40¢ each for them -- a nice little profit for the undershirt manufacturer. And the stocking manufacturer and the uniform manufacturers and the cap manufacturers and the steel helmet manufacturers -- all got theirs.  

Why, when the war was over some 4,000,000 sets of equipment -- knapsacks and the things that go to fill them -- crammed warehouses on this side. Now they are being scrapped because the regulations have changed the contents. But the manufacturers collected their wartime profits on them -- and they will do it all over again the next time.  

There were lots of brilliant ideas for profit making during the war.

One very versatile patriot sold Uncle Sam twelve dozen 48-inch wrenches. Oh, they were very nice wrenches. The only trouble was that there was only one nut ever made that was large enough for these wrenches. That is the one that holds the turbines at Niagara Falls. Well, after Uncle Sam had bought them and the manufacturer had pocketed the profit, the wrenches were put on freight cars and shunted all around the United States in an effort to find a use for them.  

When the Armistice was signed it was indeed a sad blow to the wrench manufacturer. He was just about to make some nuts to fit the wrenches. Then he planned to sell these, too, to your Uncle Sam.  

Still another had the brilliant idea that colonels shouldn't ride in automobiles, nor should they even ride on horseback. One has probably seen a picture of Andy Jackson riding in a buckboard. Well, some 6,000 buckboards were sold to Uncle Sam for the use of colonels! Not one of them was used. But the buckboard manufacturer got his war profit.

The shipbuilders felt they should come in on some of it, too. They built a lot of ships that made a lot of profit. More than $3,000,000,000 worth. Some of the ships were all right. But $635,000,000 worth of them were made of wood and wouldn't float! The seams opened up -- and they sank. We paid for them, though. And somebody pocketed the profits.  

It has been estimated by statisticians and economists and researchers that the war cost your Uncle Sam $52,000,000,000. Of this sum, $39,000,000,000 was expended in the actual war itself. This expenditure yielded $16,000,000,000 in profits.  That is how the 21,000 billionaires and millionaires got that way. This $16,000,000,000 profits is not to be sneezed at. It is quite a tidy sum. And it went to a very few.

The Senate (Nye) committee probe of the munitions industry and its wartime profits, despite its sensational disclosures, hardly has scratched the surface.
Even so, it has had some effect. The State Department has been studying "for some time" methods of keeping out of war. The War Department suddenly decides it has a wonderful plan to spring. The Administration names a committee -- with the War and Navy Departments ably represented under the chairmanship of a Wall Street speculator -- to limit profits in war time.  

To what extent isn't suggested. Hmmm. Possibly the profits of 300 and 600 and 1,600 per cent of those who turned blood into gold in the World War would be limited to some smaller figure.

Apparently, however, the plan does not call for any limitation of losses -- that is, the losses of those who fight the war. As far as I have been able to ascertain there is nothing in the scheme to limit a soldier to the loss of but one eye, or one arm, or to limit his wounds to one or two or three. Or to limit the loss of life.  

There is nothing in this scheme, apparently, that says not more than 12 per cent of a regiment shall be wounded in battle, or that not more than 7 per cent in a division shall be killed. Of course, the committee cannot be bothered with such trifling matters.

 
CHAPTER THREE Who Pays The Bills?
Who provides the profits -- these nice little profits of 20, 100, 300, 1,500 and 1,800 per cent? We all pay them -- in taxation. We paid the bankers their profits when we bought Liberty Bonds at $100.00 and sold them back at $84 or $86 to the bankers.  

These bankers collected $100 plus. It was a simple manipulation. The bankers control the security marts. It was easy for them to depress the price of these bonds. Then all of us -- the people -- got frightened and sold the bonds at $84 or $86. The bankers bought them.  

Then these same bankers stimulated a boom and government bonds went to par -- and above. Then the bankers collected their profits.  

But the soldier pays the biggest part of the bill. If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the battlefields abroad. Or visit any of the veteran's hospitals in the United States. On a tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at the time of this writing, I have visited eighteen government hospitals for veterans. In them are a total of about 50,000 destroyed men -- men who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago. The very able chief surgeon at the government hospital; at Milwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality among veterans is three times as great as among those who stayed at home.

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 readjustment, sans [without] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and 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.  

In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are in pens! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around outside the buildings and on the porches. These already have been mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their faces! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are gone.

There are thousands and thousands of these cases, and more and more are coming in all the time. The tremendous excitement of the war, the sudden cutting off of that excitement -- the young boys couldn't stand it.  

That's a part of the bill. So much for the dead -- they have paid their part of the war profits. So much for the mentally and physically wounded -- they are paying now their share of the war profits. But the others paid, too -- they paid with heartbreaks when they tore themselves away from their firesides and their families to don the uniform of Uncle Sam -- on which a profit had been made. They paid another part in the training camps where they were regimented and drilled while others took their jobs and their places in the lives of their communities.  

The paid for it in the trenches where they shot and were shot; where they were hungry for days at a time; where they slept in the mud and the cold and in the rain -- with the moans and shrieks of the dying for a horrible lullaby.  

But don't forget -- the soldier paid part of the dollars and cents bill too.
Up to and including the Spanish-American War, we had a prize system, and soldiers and sailors fought for money. During the Civil War they were paid bonuses, in many instances, before they went into service.  

The government, or states, paid as high as $1,200 for an enlistment. In the Spanish-American War they gave prize money. When we captured any vessels, the soldiers all got their share -- at least, they were supposed to. Then it was found that we could reduce the cost of wars by taking all the prize money and keeping it, but conscripting [drafting] the soldier anyway. Then soldiers couldn't bargain for their labor, Everyone else could bargain, but the soldier couldn't. 

Napoleon once said,

"All men are enamored of decorations . . . they positively hunger for them."

So by developing the Napoleonic system -- the medal business -- the government learned it could get soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be decorated. Until the Civil War there were no medals. Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed out. It made enlistments easier. After the Civil War no new medals were issued until the Spanish-American War.  

In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join the army.

So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side . . . it is His will that the Germans be killed.
And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the Germans to kill the allies . . . to please the same God.  

That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder conscious.  

Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. This was the "war to end all wars." This was the "war to make the world safe for democracy." No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a "glorious adventure."

Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats, it was decided to make them help pay for the war, too. So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a month.
All they had to do for this munificent sum was to leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in swampy trenches, eat canned willy (when they could get it) and kill and kill and kill . . . and be killed.  

But wait!  

Half of that wage (just a little more than a riveter in a shipyard or a laborer in a munitions factory safe at home made in a day) was promptly taken from him to support his dependents, so that they would not become a charge upon his community. Then we made him pay what amounted to accident insurance -- something the employer pays for in an enlightened state -- and that cost him $6 a month. He had less than $9 a month left.

Then, the most crowning insolence of all -- he was virtually blackjacked into paying for his own ammunition, clothing, and food by being made to buy Liberty Bonds. Most soldiers got no money at all on pay days.  

We made them buy Liberty Bonds at $100 and then we bought them back -- when they came back from the war and couldn't find work -- at $84 and $86. And the soldiers bought about $2,000,000,000 worth of these bonds!

Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill. His family pays too. They pay it in the same heart-break that he does. As he suffers, they suffer. At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel burst about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly -- his father, his mother, his wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and his daughters. 

When he returned home minus an eye, or minus a leg or with his mind broken, they suffered too -- as much as and even sometimes more than he. Yes, and they, too, contributed their dollars to the profits of the munitions makers and bankers and shipbuilders and the manufacturers and the speculators made. They, too, bought Liberty Bonds and contributed to the profit of the bankers after the Armistice in the hocus-pocus of manipulated Liberty Bond prices.

And even now the families of the wounded men and of the mentally broken and those who never were able to readjust themselves are still suffering and still paying.
 
CHAPTER FOUR How To Smash This Racket!
WELL, it's a racket, all right.
A few profit -- and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.  

The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation -- it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted -- to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Let the workers in these plants get the same wages -- all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers -- yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders -- everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches! 

Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

Why shouldn't they?
They aren't running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered. They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren't hungry. The soldiers are! 

Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war. That will smash the war racket -- that and nothing else. 

Maybe I am a little too optimistic. Capital still has some say. So capital won't permit the taking of the profit out of war until the people -- those who do the suffering and still pay the price -- make up their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and not that of the profiteers.
Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared. A plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and dying. There wouldn't be very much sense in having a 76-year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a uniform manufacturing plant -- all of whom see visions of tremendous profits in the event of war -- voting on whether the nation should go to war or not.  

They never would be called upon to shoulder arms -- to sleep in a trench and to be shot. Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war.

There is ample precedent for restricting the voting to those affected. Many of our states have restrictions on those permitted to vote. In most, it is necessary to be able to read and write before you may vote. In some, you must own property. It would be a simple matter each year for the men coming of military age to register in their communities as they did in the draft during the World War and be examined physically.  

Those who could pass and who would therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of war would be eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite. They should be the ones to have the power to decide -- and not a Congress few of whose members are within the age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical condition to bear arms. Only those who must suffer should have the right to vote.  

A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only.

At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up. The swivel-chair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart. They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation." Oh no. First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people. Just like that.  

Then they begin to cry for a larger navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. For defense purposes only.

Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific. For defense. Uh, huh.
The Pacific is a great big ocean. We have a tremendous coastline on the Pacific. Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles? Oh, no. The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast.  

The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the united States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles.

The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never would have been blown up. There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant loss of life. Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for defense purposes.  

Our nation cannot start an offensive war if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from the coastline. Planes might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance. And the army should never leave the territorial limits of our nation.

To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket.

1. We must take the profit out of war.
2. We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.
3. We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.

               (.....) 

So...I say,

            TO HELL WITH WAR!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

PD:

El criminal negocio de la Guerra que denuncia  el General Smedley Butler,  es exacto y axiomatico. Pero en cuanto a la solucion que presenta...esto es otra cosa:

--We must take the profit out of war. 

--We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war. 

--We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.

 

Esto es un Total Abstraccismo Utópico.

The profit no es tan solo la guerra: es TODO.

Habria que sacar este TODO:

habría que sacar, o más que sacar,

destruir al capitalismo desde sus mismas raices

para que los intereses colectivos

reinen, manden e imperen sobre los privados. Es sumemente obvio.

¿Es ésto otro abstraccismo utópico -a.u.-?
Puede ser.
Pero lo sea o no: no existe otra alternativa,
y al no existir otra alternativa,
este último a.u. cobra nivel de legitimidad
en contraposición con el primero
que presenta el General.