Posted on 04/26/2022 8:22:32 AM PDT by RandFan
“War is a racket, wrote US Maj. General Smedley Butler in 1935. He explained: “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.”
Gen. Butler’s observation describes the US/NATO response to the Ukraine war perfectly.
The propaganda continues to portray the war in Ukraine as that of an unprovoked Goliath out to decimate an innocent David unless we in the US and NATO contribute massive amounts of military equipment to Ukraine to defeat Russia. As is always the case with propaganda, this version of events is manipulated to bring an emotional response to the benefit of special interests.
One group of special interests profiting massively on the war is the US military-industrial complex. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes recently told a meeting of shareholders that, “Everything that ‘s being shipped into Ukraine today, of course, is coming out of stockpiles, either at DOD or from our NATO allies, and that’s all great news. Eventually we’ll have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business.”
He wasn’t lying. Raytheon, along with Lockheed Martin and countless other weapons manufacturers are enjoying a windfall they have not seen in years. The US has committed more than three billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine. They call it aid, but it is actually corporate welfare: Washington sending billions to arms manufacturers for weapons sent overseas.
By many accounts these shipments of weapons like the Javelin anti-tank missile (jointly manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin) are getting blown up as soon as they arrive in Ukraine. This doesn’t bother Raytheon at all. The more weapons blown up by Russia in Ukraine, the more new orders come from the Pentagon.
Former Warsaw Pact countries now members of NATO are in on the scam as well. They’ve discovered how to dispose of their 30-year-old Soviet-made weapons and receive modern replacements from the US and other western NATO countries.
While many who sympathize with Ukraine are cheering, this multi-billion dollar weapons package will make little difference. As former US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter said on the Ron Paul Liberty Report last week, “I can say with absolute certainty that even if this aid makes it to the battlefield, it will have zero impact on the battle. And Joe Biden knows it.”
What we do see is that Russians are capturing modern US and NATO weapons by the ton and even using them to kill more Ukrainians. What irony. Also, what kinds of opportunities will be provided to terrorists, with thousands of tons of deadly high-tech weapons floating around Europe? Washington has admitted that it has no way of tracking the weapons it is sending to Ukraine and no way to keep them out of the hands of the bad guys.
War is a racket, to be sure. The US has been meddling in Ukraine since the end of the Cold War, going so far as overthrowing the government in 2014 and planting the seeds of the war we are witnessing today. The only way out of a hole is to stop digging. Don’t expect that any time soon. War is too profitable.
“There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot – things are not as they seem.”
― Jim Thompson, author of “The Killer Inside Me”
All war is a racket.
The whole thing stinks. Why does the USA always insist on pushing their way into the midst of other peoples’ business? Uncle Sam never met a war they didn’t like from Mexico, to Cuba, to Philipines to Europe.
One of these days this meddling will bite us in the butt, and we’ll deserve it.
It is very troubling to see the vast majority of Freepers completely taken in by this new racket. At least some of us old neocons learned our lesson after 20 years of supporting the same warmongering racket in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Scott Ritter and Ron Paul. Now that is a racket.
“It is very troubling to see the vast majority of Freepers completely taken in by this new racket. At least some of us old neocons learned our lesson after 20 years of supporting the same warmongering racket in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
I wouldn’t say it’s the vast majority, seems closer to 50/50. And perusing some of the other conservative forums, I would say the support for this is much less. There’s always been a contingent on here who will support any war no matter what. Seems odd on a forum containing so many professed Christians. Actually had one guy with a tagline professing a reverence for life, while posting on a thread cheering on the torture of Russian prisoners of war. Kind of hard to take these hypocrites seriously, most of them seem clueless as to what is really going on.
But they are right.
Great article by Paul doing his truth telling.
People who cite a 1935 America First (anti-war) general think the attack on Pearl Harbor was faked by FDR to get the U.S. into WWII. If you believe that, why wouldn’t you believe the CIA faked the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
War is a terrible thing. I don’t harshly judge people who, out of the horror of war, say things like “better red than dead,” who try to appease aggressors by partitioning Czechoslovakia at Munich, who ask what did we did to provoke Japan into invading China? or who wonder how can we placate a madman with 6,000 nuclear bombs?
But, they, like Patti Hearst, have joined with the aggressor. Perhaps due to Stockholm syndrome.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22387-stockholm-syndrome
Others should be recognized as operatives for the other side. They’re on Putin’s payroll.
Both of them know more than you. You are a tool of the Deep State wanting to eradicate Americans through war and bad medicine you pimp around here all the time..
“Everything that ‘s being shipped into Ukraine today, of course, is coming out of stockpiles, either at DOD or from our NATO allies, and that’s all great news. Eventually we’ll have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business.”
Except for Stinger Missiles.
Wonder why Russia is pushing their way into Ukrainian business....
Yep. Spot on. He could have also talked about how the government in Ukraine broke the Minsk agreement and killed thousands of civilians in the Donbas over the last 10 years....how it is NOT a democracy having jailed or murdered political opponents and banned opposition media, etc.
There are no good guys here. This is not our fight.
As usual Ron Paul uses consequences to assign cause, ignoring that it is just as possible the consequences (benefit to military industries) is NOT cause at all, but just a consequence.
dforest wrote: “Both of them know more than you.”
Ron Paul proved beyond all doubt that he wasn’t a serious thinker when he proposed that the solution to capturing Osama Bin Laden was to issue Letters Of Marque and Reprisal.
dforest wrote: “You are a tool of the Deep State wanting to eradicate Americans through war and bad medicine you pimp around here all the time..”
That’s an absurd accusation. I spent 22 years in the military and anyone with a regard for facts know the vaccines have saved the lives of millions.
Same here. I was quite surprised at some of them whom I’ve always viewed as sensible.
At least some of us old neocons learned our lesson after 20 years of supporting the same warmongering racket in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yeah, I supported those, one of them physically. I still feel like we did some good things, but hindsight is definitely 20/20.
“It is very troubling to see the vast majority of Freepers completely taken in by this new racket. At least some of us old neocons learned our lesson after 20 years of supporting the same warmongering racket in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
I’ve noticed that a lot of people here are simply tired of arguing with the Loudmouths on Ukraine and keep quiet until accurate news stories come out, such as those documenting the ties being their Ukrainian government and their Nazis, or yet another False Flag by the West/Ukraine/Media. In those stories you see a lot of people saying that WW3 isn’t worth it over Ukraine, and then only later to the Zelensky Mouthpieces come out and essentially say it is worth WW3.
So at least 5 to 1 against WW3, maybe even 10 to 1 against.
“Except for Stinger Missiles.”
They’ve been sent there too...but will take a few years to get production going again. (something Finland might want to think about, by the way)
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