In a probe of military fraud here in the United States, there is a striking parallel to the age-old conundrum of whores standing in the docket while the johns walk free:
In a period when the nation has spent freely to support wars on multiple fronts, prosecutors have found plentiful
targets: defendants who bill for services they do not provide, those who
steer lucrative contracts to select business partners and those who use
bribes to game a vast military enterprise.
Those little fish in the estimated $30-to-$60 billion in fraud are punished. The pimps are too big to fail.
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC
ReplyDelete1881 - 1940
double recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor
"I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force--the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was part of a racket all the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service."
Smedley D. Butler (1881-1940)
Here's a link to the archived text of his booklet on the subject:
https://archive.org/stream/WarIsARacket/WarIsARacket_djvu.txt