Happy 240th. birthday to the world's largest fraternity.
OOHRAH !!!
On one level, thank you.
On another level...well, let me explain.
In boot camp, our drill instructors included several references to General Smedley (Gimlet Eye) Butler. Now, don't get me wrong, Butler had an incredible career as a Marine--definitely a warrior.
However, that was not what he was famous for. Butler was most famous for two things: a proposed amendment to the constitution--The Peace Amendment. And, a book--booklet really--W
ar is a Racket. It is in the public domain now. Available on the internet in pdf. Its cost is nothing more than the time it takes to google it.
You see, as a general Butler finally woke up to the fact that his entire career had been spent not fighting for freedom, but killing other people to forward American business interests in Central America. The Banana Wars and so forth of the 1920s and 1930's.
So, why would the USMC training regiment at Parris Island
ensure to include references to a
general officer who was forced into retirement and whose biggest impact was a booklet that exposed the back-room dealings, and a Peace Amendment to the US Constitution that heavily restricted the ability of the US government to kill people in other lands? (I've read the proposed amendment--its online. It pretty much knocks out every military adventurism. It would allow only defense against invasion.) Why would the USMC plant the seed about this guy?
I can only speculate that somewhere, somebody who developed the training program could not come right out and tell recruits in their training materials what Butler said and believed; but, wanted recruits to at least have some tiny little chance of finding out.
Chesty Puller was the greatest Marine
warrior. Hands down, no argument, light years ahead of the next guy. Smedley Butler was the greatest Marine period: he not only recognized what the deadly special interests were up to, and how they used the military; but he announced it to all in his booklet. And, then followed that up with an attempt to change the constitution to make it much harder for the federal government to kill other people in foreign lands
and sacrifice American young men for banal monetary interests and votes.
So, MissOak, on one level, thank you. The former Marine in me always swells with pride on 10 Nov. On another level, well...age and experience has led me to conclude the "another level" is far more important.