Lew: The quote from Smedley Butler is a wonderful example of how powerful an unvarnished expression of truth can be. I like to imagine that I might have been related to Smedley in some indirect manner: my first name is my Irish grandmother’s family name.

In any event, his comments came just a few days after Jane and I had watched the movie “My Son Jack,” about the moral slug Rudyard Kipling’s successful efforts to condition his son into the war mentality – an effort that paid off with his son’s early death in World War I. [Was Rudyard’s lack of personal war experience what led him to glorify this system, and to sacrifice his son in the process?]

In any event, Smedley’s words should be taken to heart by every parent who needs to ask himself/herself the question that support for war always comes down to: do I really love the state more than I do my own children?

The Best of Butler Shaffer