"Sickened by the deterioration of my Marine Corps"
Detector
Marines Self-Destruct
OP-ED
Robert S. Finnegan
Managing Editor
Southeast Asia News
"There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is
blind to. It has its 'finger men' to point out enemies, its 'muscle men' to
destroy enemies, its 'brain guys' to plan war preparations, and a 'Big Boss,
Supra-nationalistic Capitalism. It may seem odd for me a military man, to
adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to do so. I spent
thirty-five years and four months in active service as a member of our
country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps.
"I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major
General. During that period I spent most of my life being a high-class
muscle man for big business, Wall Street and the Bankers. In short, I was a
racketeer - a gangster for Capitalism.
"I suspected I was just part of the racket at the time. Now I am sure
of it. Like most members of the military profession I never had an original
thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended
animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical of
anyone in the military.
"Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil
interests in 1914. I helped make Hati and Cuba a decent place for the
National City Bank boys to collect revenue. I helped in the raping of half
a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The
record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the
International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light
to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China in
1927 I helped Standard Oil.
"During those years I had, as the boys in the back room say, a swell
racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotion. Looking back on
it, I feel I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do w
as operate in three city districts: I operated on three continents".
Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, as quoted in Money, December 1951.
11/13/04 "ICH" -- If only we had a Smedley D. Butler clone in the Corps
today, Bush and his gang of Nazi wanna-be's would certainly have their hands
full.
Sickened by the deterioration of my Marine Corps - indeed what looks to
be the destruction of anything resembling honor and fidelity - I must now
relegate myself to the past Corps, where we at least had a semblance of our
duties to ourselves and to our country. No more will I consider myself a
part of today's elite organization that began in Tun Tavern in 1775. I
cannot lend my name to the sycophantic, mindless robots that now fill out
our ranks. Marines who kill for fun. Who kill without question. Who kill
for their false God, George Bush.
How did this come to pass? How was an honorable fighting force
subjugated, degraded, and turned into unrepentant killers of civilians? We
who prided ourselves as being above all other services, officers, NCOs, and
enlisted who knew the difference between right and wrong on the battlefield
and would die protecting the civilian population from excesses? What has
happened to us?
To see my kids - yeah, MY KIDS - in a video clip exulting over the
killing of an unarmed civilian with overwhelming firepower was the end of my
association with today's Marine Corps. Brain-dead Marine Corps Corporals
and Sergeants mugging to the BBC camera, shouting "right on", as they
observe an unarmed Iraqi they have turned into hamburger from a fortified
position with overwhelming firepower.
Some warriors. Perhaps their God Bush will give them absolution, and
then hey, it's right back to the killing. Fundamentalist Christian rock
before the battle, baptism in a water-filled dinghy by prostitutes wearing
the cross of the chaplain. Our slain comrades? Let Bush take care of 'em.
This is straight out of an acid-induced nightmare.
So my children go forth to slaughter innocent civilians in Fallujah.
May your God Bush bury you in cheap metal caskets. Perhaps the shedding of
your blood will partially wash away the everlasting stain and disgrace you
have brought upon our Corps. Our Corps and history will damn you. You will
know everlasting shame.
And a final warning to young Marines - should you fire on American
civilians in some future domestic insanity, you will be destroyed by your
own kind - that's right kids - your parents in the "Old Corps" will see to
it that the likes of you will never plague the earth again.
Robert S. Finnegan is the Managing Editor of Southeast Asia News, a former
Non-Commissioned Officer in the United States Marine Corps and the lead
investigator/Senior Editor for The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Indonesia on the
Bali bombings of 2002. He may be reached at
David Butler
"Detector" <a...@rchy.com> wrote in message
news:10pdrqp...@corp.supernews.com...
> http://informationclearinghouse.info/article7283.htm
> Robert S. Finnegan is the Managing Editor of Southeast Asia News,
You mean "was". He was fired. He seems like a bit of a screwball, from what
I can see.
Detector
David Butler <but...@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:SZednbSMpog...@rogers.com...
Doesn't look fired from the date of the story: 11/13/04.
shevek
An interesting story behind that one too: