War is a Racket by Smedley Butler

About this episode

The episode discusses Smedley Butler's speech criticizing militarism and capitalism.

#war #antiwar For questions, comments or to get involved, e-mail us at audibleanarchist(at)gmail.comWhile far from an Anarchist former Marine General Smedley Butler composed a speech in his twilight years that proved to be a damning criticism of militarism, imperialism and the capitalist system that enables and profits from them. Read the speech at https://publicdomarchive.blogspot.com/2026/04/1935-war-is-racket.htmlMarine Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler's expose of American Corporate Imperialism. Butler said, “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 for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of the racket all the time. Now I am sure of it.”

Topics covered

• militarism
• imperialism
• capitalism
• antiwar
• criticism

Keywords

• Smedley Butler
• war
• capitalism
• militarism
• imperialism
• antiwar
• speech

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Big Business, Wall Street, bankers

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