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“I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers.”

Smedley Butlerman.fas.org ↗

A two-time Medal of Honor Marine general said this in 1933. He spent 33 years in uniform and concluded he had been “a gangster for capitalism.” Nobody dismisses it as naive when it comes from him. That is exactly why the speech is still passed around.