Six bloody years ago today, a warmonger pretzeldent said: ' MONEY TRUMPS PEACE.'

[Octafish]

16. Cindy Sheehan pegged the Coward of Crawford and brought up a hero of democracy, Gen. Smedley Butler.

From Feb. 15, 2007:

Money Trumps Peace...Sometimes

by Cindy Sheehan
Published on Thursday, February 15, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

It is always painful to watch George stumble his way through press conferences. He can't get through a sentence without at least two-three "uhs," his eye lids flutter up and down in what my daughter, Carly, calls the "liar's blink" and just because it is painful that a human like that is ostensibly the leader of the free world. There is always a plethora of things that he says, does, or screws up on to write about but this time what caught my attention happened during the Q & A. George was asked if he thought the economic sanctions on Iran would work because so many European nations trade with that country.

He stopped to collect his thoughts with what he thought must've looked like a studied and careful demeanor, but more like someone with a sour tummy, and said: "well, let's put it this way, money trumps peace, sometimes. In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests throughout the world," (I added the italics). It is always interesting with people who frequently play fast and loose with the truth, such as the liars in BushCo, once in awhile, if they talk long enough they tell a truth.

"Money trumps peace" is the fundamental reason for the invasions and subsequent gory and violent occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Richard Behan's excellent article: From Iraq to Afghanistan: Connecting the Dots with Oil, he brilliantly follows the history of the oil-money trail in these countries that are one, rich in oil, and two, well placed for the transportation and delivery of oil. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, or their leaders or governments had anything to do with 9-11, but they were in the way of oil and other industries that profit from oil, so they had to go. Money trumped peace in those countries and they are destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis and Americans have been slaughtered because they were blocking American imperialistic profiteering.

"Money trumps peace" is the underlying reason for all wars as two time Congressional Medal of Honor winner and highly decorated Major General Smedley D. Butler wrote in his reflective, yet prophetic, work War is a Racket:

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

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.

During the short booklet which every prospective parent, current parent and every teen should read thoroughly and often, he keeps referring to World War I as the "World War" because he was writing directly after the "Great War;" the "war to end all wars." There was no World War II, yet. General Butler was no unwashed, hippie peace-nik. He was a warrior who, as often times happens when men face the horrors of war ("War is hell:" General Sherman), saw the futility of killing as a diplomatic tool that kills and maims our young people for "the benefit of the very few."

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0215-29.htm

Note: I replaced the odd symbols with quote marks and apostrophes. Remember the commas.

PS: Thank you for grokking, CanSocDem.