From Jaded Tasks by Wayne Madsen.

In many respects, the blending of U.S. corporations and the military into one entity is not a new phenomenon. U.S. Marine Corps General Smedley Butler, who had commanded U.S. Marines in overthrowing governments in Latin America to make their countries safe for U.S. corporations, later turned on his old corporate and military masters to tell the truth about their misdeeds:

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations.... In many ways, it may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this 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, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, 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 benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could 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.

General Butler's successors continue to make sure that U.S. oil companies remain "unmolested," from Iraq to Colombia and from Azerbaijan to Angola.

The cynicism that I attach to the Bush foreign policy (and, to a lesser extent, that of the Clinton administration) derives from some ten years of investigating various misdeeds by multinational companies, mercenary firms, and shady businessmen. In some ways, much of this book represents a personal memoir. I have had meetings with former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, given testimony before a French special anti- terrorism judge, been given invitations (abruptly withdrawn twice) to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as an expert witness, and had numerous conversations with a number of Washington "insiders." I want to share with you some of my conclusions, many of which must remain of necessity speculative, as well as various sensitive documents that either "came over the transom" or were the product of Freedom of Information Act requests.

The first Bush presidency, the Clinton interregnum, and the George W. Bush administration have all contributed to making the world a safer place for those who sneak around in the shadows, launder billions of dollars, and formulate their aggressive agenda for global domination by powerful elites. There was never a full accounting of where all the billions of dollars from the BCCI and Savings and Loans scandals, as well as the Enron Ponzi scheme, eventually landed.