War Is A Racket : I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had a…

- Smedley Butler

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…

- Smedley Butler

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 …

- Smedley Butler

If only more of today's military personnel would realize that they are being used by the owning elite's as a publicly subsidized capitalist goon squa…

- Smedley Butler

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…

- Smedley Butler

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.

- Smedley Butler

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 a…

- Smedley Butler

War like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few. The cost of operations is always transferred to the people who do not profit.

- Smedley Butler

War is a racket. 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.

- Smedley Butler