Comment by dekhn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dekhn | Hacker News Reader

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I'd interpret the question as: "given the copious evidence that the US did not enter WWII intentionally to make money for industrialists, is Smedley's thesis that all war is a racket reasonable? To what extent are humanitarian or democratic concerns as important as war profits in the decision to go to war?"

(with the unstated assumption that the US was just in its choice to fight the Axis)

I actually don't think Smedley would have changed his message at all; I think he started from a false premise that he was 100% convinced of, and would have pointed at the enormous profits made by war industrialists in the US during WWII. He might not also notice that post-war US was the most economically productive country of all time, that it opened up huge options of African Americans, or even really recognize quite what motivated Hitler and the Nazis.

> given the copious evidence that the US did not enter WWII intentionally to make money for industrialists

The USA started selling weapons to the allies long before it entered the war.

I'm referring to our entry into the war. That the US is an arms merchant is well understood- and didn't have the costs (to Americans) that Smedley describes.

The USA sold weapons to the allies largely because the president genuinely believe hitler would invade everything if not stopped. Congress wouldn't let him enter the war, because the US has a strong Isolationist vibe, but the President believed if we didn't go stop hitler in europe, hitler would eventually find his way to coming after the US and by that point we wouldn't have any allies left.

This is AFTER the allies attempted appeasement. If a foreign country wants to war, you can't not war. The only alternative is to roll over and accept new ownership, but usually new ownership disagrees with the people on how things should be done, so that "solution" largely isn't.

There was a period were Germany seemed unstoppable remember.

Maybe the US didn't enter WWII with the idea of making a profit. I don't know.

But what is undeniable is the US exited WWII in a very good position and lots of profits were made.

What does that matter though? Should we have bombed ourselves because germany and japan couldn't do it?

Just because it's a racket, doesn't mean its unjustified?

So, yes. You are saying "nuh uh smedly, ww2 was a proper justified fight"

Actually, the only thing I said above was that I think he started from false premises.

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