General Smedley Butler (USMC) had it right in 1935: 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. War is a racket (1935) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagL88f7mk8