by Lew Rockwell, Lew Rockwell:
The title of this subversive little missive comes from a quote by Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier from World War I. The great Smedley Butler said that war is never about enemies, but opportunities for profit. Butler was one of Huey Long’s closest friends, and retreated from politics after the Kingfish was assassinated.
Jeanette Rankin was the only member of Congress to vote against WWII, and had to have a police escort out of that sanctified temple of democracy afterwards. She noted that “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” She explained, in her unique fashion, “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” Her courageous stance ruined her political career. Then, as now, it wasn’t popular to stand for peace. In my view, she is the greatest woman in American history, and should have her likeness on a fiat currency bill over Harriet Tubman or any other female. I’m confident that only a very small percentage of today’s dumbed down Americans have even heard of her.
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The last war that America was justified in fighting was the War of 1812. Our shores were undeniably invaded. The White House was set on fire. They say that Dolley Madison saved the Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington. Of course, they say a lot of things. Still, picture Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama doing something like that. I’m no literal pacifist. You have to defend yourselves and your family when you are being attacked. I don’t count the Pearl Harbor false flag. FDR might as well have been flying one of the Japanese planes himself. Every other war revolved around a dubiously perceived threat emanating from one of those “foreign hobgoblins” that the great H.L. Mencken so colorfully described.
James Polk was elected president on a saber rattling platform. A warlike stance rarely fails in American politics. The 1848 invasion of Mexico was not only unconstitutional, the atrocities committed there created resentment that lingers even today, in groups like La Raza. Ironically, one of those who opposed this unnecessary skirmish was Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe wouldn’t bat an eye just over a decade later, when he ignored his own advice and pushed for the bloodiest war in our history. That internal conflict shattered the old Republic, and made a mockery of the guiding principle behind our War for Independence. The Confederates didn’t consent to those governing them. Period. As the first Imperial President, Lincoln set countless ugly precedents that paved the way for today’s America 2.0.
The Civil War was unlike all our others. The enemy wasn’t a foreign bogeyman. It was, in too many cases, someone’s brother or cousin. Such a sad internal bloodletting was simply permitted to happen. As I pointed out in my book Crimes and Cover-Ups in American Politics: 1776-1963, not a single public official tried to stop it from happening. The pointless carnage wiped out one quarter of the young males in the south. We became the United States, singular, as a result. Centralized government won. Press censorship won. Lack of due process won. “Total War,” the scorched earth policy, won. The Imperial Presidency won. Nothing good came out of it. This includes freeing the slaves, something the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t in fact do.
The court historians tell us that the greatest presidents preside over wars. In 1898, a reluctant warmonger, William McKinley, would be pressured into our disastrous venture in Cuba, which further crossed the unconstitutional line that was first seen in Mexico. One of the most aggressive proponents of the ridiculous Spanish-American War was young Teddy Roosevelt, who would become McKinley’s second vice-president after Garret Hobart died at just fifty five. Which put Teddy into a convenient position to assume the presidency when McKinley was assassinated a few years later. The first real false flag came with the misrepresented sinking of the Maine. Remember it. As William Randolph Hearst put it, they gave us a damn war.
Woodrow Wilson was, like Lincoln, a phony who masqueraded as a voice for peace. He ran on a campaign to keep us out of the European war, but once elected president he conspired behind the scenes to get us involved. Franklin Roosevelt was even busier finagling us into the next world war, despite saying, “I’ll say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” FDR was the first of the great chicken hawks. He never came close to any field of battle, but lusted for any armed conflict. His chicken hawk descendants are everywhere today, from Bill Clinton to Lindsey Graham. The entire neocon movement consists of laughably weak chicken hawks. They all talk very loudly and carry no stick.
Over the past few decades, we’ve seen the birth of the initial band of female chicken hawks. Hillary Clinton is literally the anti-Jeanette Rankin. Like her draft dodging husband, she has been enthralled with all our nonsensical foreign interventions since the Vietnam War. We came, she saw, and they died. The very word “peace” would get stuck in her throat, perhaps choking her to death. Picture a vampire saying “Jesus Christ.” Today’s peace movement, such as it exists, is thanks to Gerald Celente, Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, and a handful of others. Peace has never been more unpopular. Considering our history, that’s really saying something.
