Here are all eight parts of a very illuminating series of interviews with career military officer (and Colin Powell Chief of Staff) Lawrence Wilkerson.

How many other courageous individuals have undergone a similar deep and critical examination of their role in serving in the American military and of its true mission in world affairs?

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty, and Lieutenant Colonels Karen Kwiatkowski and “Bo” Gritz come immediately to mind.

Perhaps you, as a LRC reader, are another such person shaped and seered by your military experiences.

As Smedley Butler observed:

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 thug 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.

The Best of Charles Burris