War is a Racket

Sure, weʼre against this fellow Hitler, but being God-fearing, WE canʼt shoot him, WE canʼt bomb him, but weʼll be delighted to see YOU do it, and weʼll furnish the guns and the bombs. That is, provided you pay us double what theyʼre worth. And in order that there may be no mistake about it this time, youʼll pay us in advance. You see weʼre against going to war ourselves, but weʼre not against your wars. You go ahead. WEʼLL sell you the stuff

Letʼs be consistent. We cry to high heaven that we are a God-fearing and peace-loving nation and therefore we donʼt believe in shooting people, bombing their homes, knocking down their cities with cannon. And we really ARE a God-fearing and peace-loving people, but certainly itʼs un-Godly, hypocritical and unmanly of us to say to the British and the French

Well, eighteen years after, the world has less of a democracy than it had then. Besides, what business is it of ours whether Russia or Germany or England or France or Italy or Austria live under democracies or monarchies? Whether they are Fascists or Communists? Our problem is to preserve our own democracy

Money.
An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over shortly before the war declaration and called on the President. The President summoned a group of advisers. The head of the commission spoke. Stripped of its diplomatic language, this is what he told the President and his group:
There is no use kidding ourselves any longer. The cause of the allies is lost. We now owe you (American bankers, American munitions makers, American manufacturers, American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion dollars.
If we lose (and without the help of the United States we must lose) we, England, France and Italy, cannot pay back this money…and Germany wonʼt.
So…

Looking back, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in 1916 on a platform that he had “kept us out of war” and on the implied promise that he would “keep us out of war.” Yet, five months later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany.
In that five-month interval the people had not been asked whether they had changed their minds. The 4,000,000 young men who put on uniforms and marched or sailed away were not asked whether they wanted to go forth to suffer and to die.
Then what caused our government to change its mind so suddenly?

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 donʼt 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 our 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.

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

The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes even twelve per cent. But wartime 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 the traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Letʼs get it.
Of course, it isnʼt put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and “we must all put our shoulder to the wheel,” but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket—and are safely pocketed. Letʼs just take a few examples

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.