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| war is a racket book: War Is a Racket Smedley D. Butler, 2018-02-18 War Is a Racket is a famous anti-war book written by retired Major General Smedley Buter. In the book, Butler discusses how businesses profit from conflict. |
| war is a racket book: War is a Racket Smedley Butler, 2018-01-19 War Is a Racket is a speech and a 1935 short book, by Smedley D. Butler, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient. Based on his career military experience, Butler frankly discusses how business interests commercially benefit (including war profiteering) from warfare. He had been appointed commanding officer of the Gendarmerie during the United States occupation of Haiti, which lasted from 1915 to 1934. |
| war is a racket book: Maverick Marine Hans Schmidt, 2014-04-23 Smedley Butler's life and career epitomize the contradictory nature of American military policy through the first part of this century. Butler won renown as a Marine battlefield hero, campaigning in most of America's foreign military expeditions from 1898 to the late 1920s. He became the leading national advocate for paramilitary police reform. Upon his retirement, however, he renounced war and imperialism and devoted his energy and prestige to various dissident and leftist political causes. |
| war is a racket book: Irregular Army Matt Kennard, 2012-09-17 Since the launch of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars—now the longest wars in American history—the US military has struggled to recruit troops. It has responded, as Matt Kennard’s explosive investigative report makes clear, by opening its doors to neo-Nazis, white supremacists, gang members, criminals of all stripes, the overweight, and the mentally ill. Based on several years of reporting, Irregular Army includes extensive interviews with extremist veterans and leaders of far-right hate groups—who spoke openly of their eagerness to have their followers acquire military training for a coming domestic race war. As a report commissioned by the Department of Defense itself put it, “Effectively, the military has a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy pertaining to extremism.” Irregular Army connects some of the War on Terror’s worst crimes to this opening-up of the US military. With millions of veterans now back in the US and domestic extremism on the rise, Kennard’s book is a stark warning about potential dangers facing Americans—from their own soldiers. |
| war is a racket book: The Protection Racket State William Stanley, 2010-06-17 A chilling examination into why states kill. |
| war is a racket book: War Is a Racket Smedley Darlington Butler, 2013-10-01 War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired US Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley Darlington Butler. In these works, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. After his retirement from the Marine Corps, Gen. Butler made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech, “War Is a Racket.” The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version that was published in 1935, now republished with a foreword by former governor of Minnesota and New York Times bestselling author Jesse Ventura. Jesse Ventura reviews Major General Butler’s original writings and brings them up to date, relating them to our current political climate. Butler was a visionary in his day, and Ventura works to show how right he was and how wrong our current democracy is. Read for the first time Butler’s words with Ventura’s witty, yet insightful spin on this relevant work that will appeal not only to military historians, but also to those interested in the state of our country and the entire world. |
| war is a racket book: Smedley D. Butler, USMC Mark Strecker, 2014-01-10 The practice of big business promoting war to profit materially was firmly in place by the time Major General Smedley D. Butler wrote about it in his anti-corporate pamphlets. This historical biography explores the life of Butler, a little-known American Marine who exposed an alleged fascist coup to remove President Franklin D. Roosevelt from office. This text is an exploration of the political issues of the first half of the twentieth century and an examination of a complicated, valiant man who shifted from Republican ideals to anti-corporate, left-wing populism. |
| war is a racket book: The Snatch Racket Carolyn Cox, 2021-03 Although the 1932 kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby was a worldwide sensation, it was only one of an estimated three thousand ransom kidnappings that occurred in the United States that year. The epidemic hit America during the Great Depression and the last days of Prohibition as criminal gangs turned kidnapping into the highly lucrative snatch racket. Wealthy families and celebrities purchased kidnap insurance, hired armed chauffeurs and bodyguards, and carried loaded handguns. Some sent their children to school or summer camp in Europe to get them out of harm's way. Recent Kidnappings in America was a regular feature in the New York Times, while Time magazine included kidnappings in its weekly list of notable births, deaths, and other milestones. The Snatch Racket is the story of a crime epidemic that so frightened families that it undermined confidence in law enforcement and government in general. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt waged a three-year War against Kidnappers with J. Edgar Hoover and his G-men (newly empowered to carry weapons and make arrests) on the front lines. This first U.S. war against terrorism revolutionized and modernized law enforcement in the United States, dramatically expanding the powers of the federal government in the fight against not only kidnapping but many new types of interstate crime. At the heart of the narrative are some of the most iconic names of the twentieth century: Rockefeller, Ford, Lindbergh, Roosevelt, Hoover, Capone, Schwarzkopf, and Hearst, all caught up in the kidnapping frenzy. The Snatch Racket is a spellbinding account of terrifying abductions of prominent citizens, gangsters invading homes with machine guns, the struggles of law enforcement, and the courage of families doing whatever it took to bring home the ransomed. |
| war is a racket book: Red Platoon Clinton Romesha, 2016-05-03 THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The only comprehensive, firsthand account of the fourteen-hour firefight at the Battle of Keating in Afghanistan by Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha, for readers of Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. “‘It doesn't get better.’ To us, that phrase nailed one of the essential truths, maybe even the essential truth, about being stuck at an outpost whose strategic and tactical vulnerabilities were so glaringly obvious to every soldier who had ever set foot in that place that the name itself—Keating—had become a kind of backhanded joke.” In 2009, Clinton Romesha of Red Platoon and the rest of the Black Knight Troop were preparing to shut down Command Outpost (COP) Keating, the most remote and inaccessible in a string of bases built by the US military in Nuristan and Kunar in the hope of preventing Taliban insurgents from moving freely back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three years after its construction, the army was finally ready to concede what the men on the ground had known immediately: it was simply too isolated and too dangerous to defend. On October 3, 2009, after years of constant smaller attacks, the Taliban finally decided to throw everything they had at Keating. The ensuing fourteen-hour battle—and eventual victory—cost eight men their lives. Red Platoon is the riveting firsthand account of the Battle of Keating, told by Romesha, who spearheaded both the defense of the outpost and the counterattack that drove the Taliban back beyond the wire and received the Medal of Honor for his actions. |
| war is a racket book: War is a Racket Smedley Darlington Butler, 2010 |
| war is a racket book: To Hell and Back Audie Murphy, 2002-05-01 The classic WWII memoir by America’s most decorated soldier shares a “vivid, gripping, mature picture of combat” (The New York Times Book Review). Originally published in 1949, To Hell and Back was a bestselling phenomenon and later became a major motion picture starring Audie Murphy as himself. It remains one of the most harrowing personal narratives of the Second World War and a perennial classic of military nonfiction. Rejected from both the marines and the paratroopers because he was too small, Murphy was desperate to see action and determined to serve his country. Eventually, he found a home with the infantry and fought through campaigns in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Although still under twenty-one years old on V-E Day, he was credited with having killed, captured, or wounded 240 Germans. He emerged from the war as America’s most decorated soldier, having received twenty-one medals, including our highest military decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor. |
| war is a racket book: The Racket Matt Kennard, 2016-04-15 'Kennard reports with devastating precision.' Naomi Klein While working at the Financial Times, investigative journalist Matt Kennard uncovered a scam - a deception and rip-off of immense proportions. From slanging matches with Henry Kissinger to afternoon coffees with the man who captured Che Guevara, Kennard’s unbridled access over four years to the crème de la crème of the global elite left him with only one conclusion: the world as we know it is run by a squad of cigar-smoking men with big guns, big cash and a reach much too close to home. But, through encounters with high-profile opponents of the racket, such as Thom Yorke, Damon Albarn, Gael García Bernal and others, Kennard shows that human decency remains. Now it’s time for the world’s citizens to also uncover the racket. |
| war is a racket book: Bringing the State Back In Social Science Research Council (U.S.). Committee on States and Social Structures, Joint Committee on Latin American Studies, Joint Committee on Western Europe, 1985-09-13 Papers from a conference held at Mount Kisco, N.Y., Feb. 1982, sponsored by the Committee on States and Social Structures, the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies, and the Joint Committee on Western European Studies of the Social Science Research Council. Includes bibliographies and index. |
| war is a racket book: The Banana Wars Lester D. Langley, 2002 The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934 offers a sweeping panorama of America's tropical empire in the age spanned by the two Roosevelts and a detailed narrative of U.S. military intervention in the Caribbean and Mexico. In this new edition, Professor Langley provides an updated introduction, placing the scholarship in current historical context. From the perspective of the Americans involved, the empire carved out by the banana warriors was a domain of bickering Latin American politicians, warring tropical countries, and lawless societies that the American military had been dispatched to police and tutor. Beginning with the Cuban experience, Langley examines the motives and consequences of two military occupations and the impact of those interventions on a professedly antimilitaristic American government and on its colonial agents in the Caribbean, the American military. The result of the Cuban experience, Langley argues, was reinforcement of the view that the American people did not readily accept prolonged military occupation of Caribbean countries. In Nicaragua and Mexico, from 1909 to 1915, where economic and diplomatic pressures failed to bring the results desired in Washington, the American military became the political arbiters; in Hispaniola, bluejackets and marines took on the task of civilizing the tropics. In the late 1920s, with an imperial force largely of marines, the American military waged its last banana war in Nicaragua against a guerrilla leader named Augusto C. Sandino. Langley not only narrates the history of America's tropical empire, but fleshes out the personalities of this imperial era, including Leonard Wood and Fred Funston, U.S. Army, who left their mark on Cuba and Vera Cruz; William F. Fullam and William Banks Caperton, U.S. Navy, who carried out their missions imbued with old-school beliefs about their role as policemen in disorderly places; Smedley Butler and L.W.T. Waller, Sr., U.S.M.C., who left the most lasting imprint of A |
| war is a racket book: The Meat Racket Christopher Leonard, 2015-02-24 In The Meat Racket, investigative reporter Christopher Leonard delivers the first-ever account of how a handful of companies have seized the nation's meat supply. He shows how they built a system that puts farmers on the edge of bankruptcy, charges high prices to consumers, and returns the industry to the shape it had in the 1900s before the meat monopolists were broken up. At the dawn of the 21st century, the greatest capitalist country in the world has an oligarchy controlling much of the food we eat and a high-tech sharecropping system to make that possible. These companies are even able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. We know that it takes big companies to bring meat to the American table. What The Meat Racket shows is that this industrial system is rigged against all of us. -- From publisher description. |
| war is a racket book: The Plot to Seize the White House Jules Archer, 2015-04-07 Many people might not know that in 1933, a group of wealthy industrialists—working closely with groups like the K.K.K. and the American Liberty League—planned to overthrow the U.S. government and run FDR out of office in a fascist coup. Readers will learn of their plan to turn unhappy war veterans into American “brown shirts,” depose F.D.R., and stop the New Deal. They asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to work with them and become the “first American Caesar.” Fortunately, Butler was a true patriot. Instead of working for the fascist coup, he revealed the plot to journalists and to Congress. Archer writes a compelling account of a ploy that would have turned FDR into fascist puppet, threatened American democracy and changed the course of history. This book not only reveals the truth behind this shocking episode in history, but also tells the story of the man whose courage and bravery prevented it from happening. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. |
| war is a racket book: The Spoils of War Andrew Cockburn, 2021-09-21 Why does the United States go to war?—a leading Harper’s commentator on U.S. foreign affairs searches for answers. A withering exposé of runaway military spending and the private economic interests funding the U.S. war machine—for fans of Rachel Maddow and Democracy Now! America has a long tradition of justifying war as the defense of democracy. The War on Terror was waged to protect the West from the dangers of Islamists. The US soldiers stationed in over 800 locations across the world are meant to be the righteous arbiters of justice. Against this background, Andrew Cockburn brilliantly dissects the true intentions behind Washington’s martial appetites. The American war machine can only be understood in terms of the private passions and interests of those who control it—principally a passionate interest in money. Thus, as Cockburn witheringly reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer’s urgent financial requirements; the US Navy’s Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; senior Marine commanders agreed to a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2017 for budgetary reasons. Based on years of wide-ranging research, Cockburn lays bare the ugly reality of the largest military machine in history: as profoundly squalid as it is terrifyingly deadly. |
| war is a racket book: The Bonus Army Paul Dickson, Thomas B. Allen, 2020-02-12 Based on extensive research, this highly praised history recounts the 1932 march on Washington by 15,000 World War I veterans and the protest's role in the transformation of American society. Recommended. — Library Journal. |
| war is a racket book: War Made Easy Norman Solomon, 2010-12-09 War Made Easy cuts through the dense web of spin to probe and scrutinize the key perception management techniques that have played huge roles in the promotion of American wars in recent decades. This guide to disinformation analyzes American military adventures past and present to reveal striking similarities in the efforts of various administrations to justify, and retain, public support for war. War Made Easy is essential reading. It documents a long series of deliberate misdeeds at the highest levels of power and lays out important guidelines to help readers distinguish a propaganda campaign from actual news reporting. With War Made Easy, every reader can become a savvy media critic and, perhaps, help the nation avoid costly and unnecessary wars. |
| war is a racket book: Three Generals on War Smedley D. Butler, Christopher Birdwood Thomson, Frank Percy Crozier, 1973 |
| war is a racket book: In Defense of Looting Vicky Osterweil, 2020-08-25 A fresh argument for rioting and looting as our most powerful tools for dismantling white supremacy. Looting -- a crowd of people publicly, openly, and directly seizing goods -- is one of the more extreme actions that can take place in the midst of social unrest. Even self-identified radicals distance themselves from looters, fearing that violent tactics reflect badly on the broader movement. But Vicky Osterweil argues that stealing goods and destroying property are direct, pragmatic strategies of wealth redistribution and improving life for the working class -- not to mention the brazen messages these methods send to the police and the state. All our beliefs about the innate righteousness of property and ownership, Osterweil explains, are built on the history of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous oppression. From slave revolts to labor strikes to the modern-day movements for climate change, Black lives, and police abolition, Osterweil makes a convincing case for rioting and looting as weapons that bludgeon the status quo while uplifting the poor and marginalized. In Defense of Looting is a history of violent protest sparking social change, a compelling reframing of revolutionary activism, and a practical vision for a dramatically restructured society. |
| war is a racket book: The Shortest History of War: From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers - A Retelling for Our Times (Shortest History) Gwynne Dyer, 2022-08-02 A brisk account of this defining feature of human society, from prehistory to nuclear proliferation and lethal autonomous weapons. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. War has changed, but we have not. From our hunter-gatherer ancestors to the rival nuclear powers of today, whenever resources have been contested, we’ve gone to battle. Acclaimed historian Gwynne Dyer illuminates our many martial clashes in this brisk account, tracing warfare from prehistory to the world’s first cities—and on to the thousand-year “classical age” of combat, which ended when the firearm changed everything. He examines the brief interlude of “limited war” before eighteenth-century revolution ushered in “total war”—and how the devastation was halted by the nuclear shock of Hiroshima. Then came the Cold War and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which punctured the longest stretch of peace between major powers since World War II. For all our advanced technology and hyperconnected global society, we find ourselves once again on the brink as climate change heightens competition for resources and superpowers stand ready with atomic bombs, drones, and futuristic “autonomous” weapons in development. Throughout, Dyer delves into anthropology, psychology, and other relevant fields to unmask the drivers of conflict. The Shortest History of War is for anyone who wants to understand the role of war in the human story—and how we can prevent it from defining our future. |
| war is a racket book: Reds or Rackets? Howard Kimeldorf, 1988-11-04 Why is the American working class different? For generations, scholars and activists alike have wrestled with this question, with an eye to explaining why workers in the United States are not more like their radicalized European counterparts. Approaching the question from a different angle, Reds or Rackets? provides a fascinating examination of the American labor movement from the inside out, as it were, by analyzing the divergent sources of radicalism and conservatism within it. Kimeldorf focuses on the political contrast between East and West Coast longshoremen from World War I through the early years of the Cold War, when the difference between the two unions was greatest. He explores the politics of the West Coast union that developed into a hot bed of working class insurgency and contrasts it with the conservative and racket-ridden East Coast longshoreman's union. Two unions, based in the same industry—as different as night and day. The question posed by Kimeldorf is, why? Why reds on one coast and racketeers on the other? To answer this question Kimeldorf provides a systematic comparison of the two unions, illuminating the political consequences of occupational recruitment, industry structure, mobilization strategies, and industrial conflict during this period. In doing so, Reds orRackets? sheds new light on the structural and historical bases of radical and conservative unionism. More than a comparative study of two unions, Reds or Rackets? is an exploration of the dynamics of trade unionism, sources of membership loyalty, and neglected aspects of working class consciousness. It is an incisive and valuable study that will appeal to historians, social scientists, and anyone interested in understanding the political trajectory of twentieth-century American labor. |
| war is a racket book: War Is A Racket Smedley D. Butler, 2018-05-07 War is a Racket is marine general, Smedley Butler's classic treatise on why wars are conducted, who profits from them, and who pays the price. Few people are as qualified as General Butler to advance the argument encapsulated in his book's sensational title. When War is a Racket was first published in 1935, Butler was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He had lead several successful military operations in the Caribbean and in Central America, as well as in Europe during the First World War. Despite his success and his heroic status, however, Butler came away from these experiences with a deeply troubled view of both the purpose and the results of warfare. |
| war is a racket book: Once An Eagle Anton Myrer, 2002-05-07 Once An Eagle is the story of one special man, a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power. Beginning in the French countryside during the Great War, the conflict between these adversaries solidifies in the isolated garrison life marking peacetime, intensifies in the deadly Pacific jungles of World War 11, and reaches its treacherous conclusion in the last major battleground of the Cold War -- Vietnam. A study in character and values, courage, nobility, honesty, and selflessness, here is an unforgettable story about a man who embdies the best in our nation -- and in us all. |
| war is a racket book: Devil Dog David Talbot, 2011-12-06 The thrilling illustrated biography of Major General Smedley Butler, the Devil Dog Marine who fought for America across the world, cleaned up the streets of Philadelphia, and foiled a plot to overthrow FDR. Devil Dog brings to life extraordinary feats of bravery, violence, and redemption that history has forgotten. These stories are so dramatic and thrilling they have to be true. Smedley Butler took a Chinese bullet to the chest at age eighteen, but that did not stop him from running down rebels in Nicaragua and Haiti, or from saving the lives of his men in France. But when he learned that America was trading the blood of Marines to make Wall Street fat cats even fatter, Butler went on a crusade. He threw the gangsters out of Philadelphia, faced down Herbert Hoover to help veterans, and blew the lid off a plot to overthrow FDR. |
| war is a racket book: Making Sense of War Alan Stephens, Nicola Baker, 2006-11-13 Making Sense of War provides a comprehensive and clear analysis of the complex business of waging war. It gives readers a thorough understanding of the key concepts in strategic thought, concepts that have endured since the Athenian general Thucydides and the Chinese philosopher/warrior Sun Tzu first wrote about strategy some 2500 years ago. It also examines the influence on strategic choice and military strategy of political, legal and technological change. This book discusses strategy at every level of competition, employing a thematic approach and using historical examples from 500 BCE to the present. It discusses the contraints and opportunities facing military commanders in the 21st century, and demonstrates that the formulation of military strategy will continue to be perhaps the single most important responsibility for senior security officials. Making Sense of War offers original insights into the imperatives of military success in the era of asymmetric warfare. |
| war is a racket book: War for the Hell of It Ed Cobleigh, 2016-05-03 What's it like to fight an unwinnable war? What's Mach 2? What does night ground attack feel like? How was the Phantom to fly? It's all here, the sights, sounds, smells, violence, political frustrations, the terror and triumph of survival in the sky over Vietnam. Death in the air but exotic pleasures available back on base in Thailand. Live it n |
| war is a racket book: War Is a Lie David Swanson, 2010-10 Not a single thing we commonly believe about wars that helps keep them around is true. Wars cannot be good or glorious. Nor can they be justified as a means of achieving peace or anything else of value. The reasons given for wars, before, during, and after, are all false. Because there can be no good reason for war, having gone to war, we are participating in a lie. -- Introduction. |
| war is a racket book: Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! Jesse Ventura, Dick Russell, 2009-05-15 Ventura--former governor, wrestler, and Navy SEAL--discusses what's wrong with the Democrats, the Republicans, and politics in America. |
| war is a racket book: Fiasco Thomas E. Ricks, 2006-07-25 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • One of the Washington Post Book World's 10 Best Books of the Year • Time's 10 Best Books of the Year • USA Today's Nonfiction Book of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book Staggeringly vivid and persuasive . . . absolutely essential reading. —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times The best account yet of the entire war. —Vanity Fair The definitive account of the American military's tragic experience in Iraq Fiasco is a masterful reckoning with the planning and execution of the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq through mid-2006, now with a postscript on recent developments. Ricks draws on the exclusive cooperation of an extraordinary number of American personnel, including more than one hundred senior officers, and access to more than 30,000 pages of official documents, many of them never before made public. Tragically, it is an undeniable account—explosive, shocking, and authoritative—of unsurpassed tactical success combined with unsurpassed strategic failure that indicts some of America's most powerful and honored civilian and military leaders. |
| war is a racket book: Smedley Jeff McComsey, 2019 Smedley Butler, one of the most decorated Marines of all time, is a man in his element as he recalls his toughest scrapes to an eager audience of World War I veterans, who we discover have a few war stories of their own. |
| war is a racket book: War Is a Racket Smedley Butler, Dragan Nikolic, 2014-11-04 War is a Racket is marine general, Smedley Butler's classic treatise on why wars are conducted, who profits from them, and who pays the price. Few people are as qualified as General Butler to advance the argument encapsulated in his book's sensational title. When War is a Racket was first published in 1935, Butler was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He had lead several successful military operations in the Caribbean and in Central America, as well as in Europe during the First World War. Despite his success and his heroic status, however, Butler came away from these experiences with a deeply troubled view of both the purpose and the results of warfare. |
| war is a racket book: Poets of World War II Harvey Shapiro, 2003-01-27 Acclaimed poet and World War II veteran Shapiro's pathbreaking gathering of work by more than 60 poets of the war years includes Randall Jarrell, Anthony Hecht, George Oppen, Richard Eberhart, William Bronk, and Woody Guthrie. |
| war is a racket book: The Jungle Is Neutral F. Spencer Chapman, F Spencer Chapman Dso, 2017-09-06 THE JUNGLE IS NEUTRAL makes The Bridge Over the River Kwai look like a tussle in a schoolyard. F. SPENCER CHAPMAN, the book's unflappable author, narrates with typical British aplomb an amazing tale of four years spent as a guerrilla in the jungle, haranguing the Japanese in occupied Malaya. Traveling sometimes by bicycle and motorcycle, rarely by truck, and mainly in dugouts, on foot, and often on his belly through the jungle muck, Chapman recruits sympathetic Chinese, Malays, Tamils, and Sakai tribesman into an irregular corps of jungle fighters. Their mission: to harass the Japanese in any way possible. In riveting scenes, they blow up bridges, cut communication lines, and affix plastique to troop-filled trucks idling by the road. They build mines by stuffing bamboo with gelignite. They throw grenades and disappear into the jungle, their faces darkened, their tommy guns wrapped in tape so as not to reflect the moonlight. And when he is not battling the Japanese, or escaping from their prisons, he is fighting the jungle's incessant rain, wild tigers, unfriendly tribesmen, leeches, and undergrowth so thick it can take four hours to walk a mile. It is a war story without rival. |
| war is a racket book: Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body Lyle Jeremy Rubin, 2022-11 An honest reckoning with the Forever War, masculinity, and the violence of American hegemony abroad, at home, and on the psyche, from a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who came to question his belief in the U.S.'s democratizing mission In the winter of 2006, Lyle Jeremy Rubin arrived at Marine Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia. He'd joined the Marines convinced he was fulfilling his duty to his country. He believed the war on terror was necessary to national security, and would help to bring democracy and freedom to Afghanistan. And he sought a version of manhood that he thought military service could provide. Honorably discharged in 2011, Rubin returned to the United States with none of his ideals, about himself or his country, intact. Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body is a story of profound personal and political change. Rubin, a supervisor of men ordered to kill, shares his experiences on training bases in North Carolina, California, and Afghanistan, tracking his increasing disaffection with military culture, and his evolution into an activist for peace. Rubin brings us face to face in this argument-driven memoir with the U.S.'s presence in the Middle East, all while analyzing the racism, class divides, and culture of conquest that oil the machinery of American empire. |
| war is a racket book: Soldiers in Revolt David Cortright, 1975-01-01 Examines the evidence of increasing discontent within the U.S. armed services during the Vietnam War, discusses what has happened to the military establishment since the war's end, and proposes still further changes to bring the military in line with modern society. |
| war is a racket book: The War State Michael Swanson, 2013-07-16 Today when you factor in the interest on the national debt from past wars and total defense expenditures the United States spends almost 40% of its federal budget on the military. It accounts for over 46% of total world arms spending. Before World War II it spent almost nothing on defense and hardly anyone paid any income taxes. You can't have big wars without big government. Such big expenditures are now threatening to harm the national economy. How did this situation come to be? In this book you'll learn how in the critical twenty years after World War II the United States changed from being a continental democratic republic to a global imperial superpower. Since then nothing has ever been the same again. In this book you will discover this secret history of the United States that formed the basis of the world we live in today. By buying this book you will discover: - How the end of European colonialism created a power vacuum that the United States used to create a new type of world empire backed by the most powerful military force in human history. - Why the Central Intelligence Agency was created and used to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations when the United States Constitution had no mechanism for such imperial activities. - How national security bureaucrats got President Harry Truman to approve of a new wild budget busting arms race after World War II that is still going on to this day. - Why President Eisenhower really gave his famous warning against the military-industrial complex. - Why during the Kennedy administration the nuclear arms race almost led to the end of the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis. - How President Kennedy tried to deal with what had grown into a permanent government of power elite national security bureaucrats in the executive branch of the federal government that had become more powerful than the individual president himself. In this book you will discover this secret history of the United States that formed the basis of the world we live in today. |
| war is a racket book: In Pharaoh's Army Tobias Wolff, 1996 Despite his impressive credentials as a paratrooper and former Green Beret, Tobias Wolff recognises in himself laughably little talent for the military life and no taste at all for the war. A young officer out of his depth, he lives in boredom and terror and grief for lost friends; then and in the years to come, he reckons the cost of staying alive. Much has been written about the scarring Vietnam experience, but never with the blend of exactitude, humanity, grotesque humour, and painful truth that marks the work of Tobias Wolff. |
| war is a racket book: Olio O Tyehimba Jess, 2016 With ambitious manipulations of poetic forms, Jess presents the sweat and story behind America's blues, worksongs and church hymns. |
War - Wikipedia
War is an armed conflict [a] between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the …
War | History, Causes, Types, Meaning, Examples, & Facts | Britannica
5 days ago · War, in the popular sense, a conflict between political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude. Sociologists usually apply the term to such conflicts only …
Israel Iran War Live Updates: Israel does not want mediation …
10 hours ago · Israel Iran War LIVE Updates: Hostilities between Israel and Iran have entered the fifth day after Israel refused any diplomatic overtures from Iran overnight to stop the ongoing …
War - National Geographic Society
Oct 1, 2024 · War is generally defined as violent conflict between states or nations.
War - New World Encyclopedia
By definition, wars are widespread and protracted with few exceptions, and are typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. The factors leading to war …
Causes of War in History - World History Encyclopedia
May 16, 2025 · The origins of the First World War (1914-18) are many and varied, with... Article . The Causes of WWII. The origins of the Second World War (1939-45) may be traced back to...
Institute for the Study of War
Some peace deals lead to peace, others to more war. The Minsk II deal aimed to end Russia’s limited invasion of Ukraine in 2015 but instead laid the groundwork for the full-scale Russian …
WAR Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of WAR is a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations. How to use war in a sentence.
With no clear exit strategy in Iran, Israel risks another war ... - CNN
1 day ago · Its ongoing war in Gaza, launched in 2023 after the October 7 attacks, was aimed at destroying Hamas and securing the release of all the hostages being held, but there is still no …
Israel-Iran Conflict LIVE: Israel Expects 'Several Waves' Of Iranian ...
4 days ago · Israel-Iran War News Live Updates: Israel’s latest airstrike on Iran once again showed how the Benjamin Netanyahu-led country uses clever planning and deception to …
War - Wikipedia
War is an armed conflict [a] between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the …
War | History, Causes, Types, Meaning, Examples, & Facts
5 days ago · War, in the popular sense, a conflict between political groups involving hostilities of considerable duration and magnitude. Sociologists usually apply the term to such conflicts only …
Israel Iran War Live Updates: Israel does not want mediation …
10 hours ago · Israel Iran War LIVE Updates: Hostilities between Israel and Iran have entered the fifth day after Israel refused any diplomatic overtures from Iran overnight to stop the ongoing …
War - National Geographic Society
Oct 1, 2024 · War is generally defined as violent conflict between states or nations.
War - New World Encyclopedia
By definition, wars are widespread and protracted with few exceptions, and are typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. The factors leading to war …
Causes of War in History - World History Encyclopedia
May 16, 2025 · The origins of the First World War (1914-18) are many and varied, with... Article . The Causes of WWII. The origins of the Second World War (1939-45) may be traced back to...
Institute for the Study of War
Some peace deals lead to peace, others to more war. The Minsk II deal aimed to end Russia’s limited invasion of Ukraine in 2015 but instead laid the groundwork for the full-scale Russian …
WAR Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of WAR is a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations. How to use war in a sentence.
With no clear exit strategy in Iran, Israel risks another war ... - CNN
1 day ago · Its ongoing war in Gaza, launched in 2023 after the October 7 attacks, was aimed at destroying Hamas and securing the release of all the hostages being held, but there is still no …
Israel-Iran Conflict LIVE: Israel Expects 'Several Waves' Of …
4 days ago · Israel-Iran War News Live Updates: Israel’s latest airstrike on Iran once again showed how the Benjamin Netanyahu-led country uses clever planning and deception to …
