How Propaganda Turns ‘Rich Man’s War,’ Into ‘Poor Man’s Fight’

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China, in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Mar. General Smedley D. Butler
“War is a Racket”
Two Time Winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor and America’s Most Decorated Soldier

Gen. Butler reminds us that “War is a Racket.” If Gen. Butler is right and war is indeed a racket, then War has to be sold as something other then a protection racket for the Oligarch class. In the modern world, the State is responsible to turn the “rich man’s war” into the “poor man’s fight,” and the way that is done is via mass propaganda.

Here is a brief rundown on how the propaganda machine was ginned up in order to rally a nation to a war footing for the purposes of protecting the moneyed Mafiosi incarnated in what is known as the International Money interest. This is how propaganda has worked in order to give moral legitimacy to justify illegal wars which are really about the profit motive.

World War I 

Propagandist machine — “We must go to war because Germans are throwing Belgian babies into the air and catching those babies on their bayonets.” (Editorial Cartoons provided showing such.)

Fact —  World War I was warfare regarding the possession of colonial territories and their raw resources and was fought between the European powers for those resources. It was all about profit motive and had nothing to do with Belgian babies on German Bayonets, innocent Americans dying on the torpedoed Lusitania or a German letter to Mexico intercepted by Brits and turned over to Americans. Follow the money.

World War II 

Propagandist machine – We must go to war because just look at what the Germans did to the poor innocent Polish people.

Fact — World War II was actually about the outrage of the International money interest because Germany had found a way to operate outside their monetary system. The International Money Interest declared war on Germany long before Germany went all belligerent on Europe. The International Money Interest realized that if Germany was allowed to create its own monetary system that was the end of the wealth creation system that had profited many important people.

Iraq War

Propagandist machine — We must go to war because Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi military are dumping Kuwaiti premie babies out of their incubators to just die on the hospital floor.

Fact — The Iraq war was actually about controlling the flow of oil, and who would profit from that flow of oil. It was also about Saddam Hussein trying to build a pan-Arabia which would rival the International Money Interest. Both Hussein and later Qaddafi (villains both) were murdered by the International Money Interest in order to protect and keep their monopoly on their International monetary system.

War of Northern Aggression

Propaganda — We must go to war because Southern Plantation owners are going all Simon Legree on the “noble savage” black slaves. ( This “noble savage” idea was a Yankee vestige of Romanticism thinking.)

Fact — War of Northern Aggression was actually about Northern Corporate and Banking interests not losing their financial jackpot as provided by the Tariffs paid by the South that went into Northern industrial and Federal Government coffers. Lincoln and the North knew that if the South was allowed to depart unimpeded that meant the end of wealthy financial houses and Yankee families.

Lincoln murdered 660,000 thousand Americans because of the profit motive. After him, Wilson and FDR murdered countless more for the same motive. None of these wars were about “keeping America safe for Democracy.” None of these wars were about “fighting for our freedoms.” Your Father, Grandfather, or Great-Grandfather were brave men but they died only for the principle of keeping themselves enslaved to the Oligarchs who lied to them in order to get them to sign up.

These were all wars so the Oligarchs could keep their money.

In each case, a moral reason is cynically arrived at in order to be used as a political sop to give moral and political legitimacy to justify the death and murder of countless numbers of people. People will not volunteer to fight to enrich Corporatists and Politicians but they will fight in order to “safeguard American freedoms” and blah blah blah.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

One thought on “How Propaganda Turns ‘Rich Man’s War,’ Into ‘Poor Man’s Fight’”

  1. We’ve had our differences regarding capitalism and Von Mises, but this was an excellent summation and commentary on Smedley Butler and the hidden hand behind the foreign and domestic fomenting of war for about 170 years. Well done.

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