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.

(Smedley D. Butler)

(art by Otto Dix)