“Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason. No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. They were just told it was to be a 'glorious adventure'.
War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket, 1935
"Investors placed a bet worth about $760 million on a falling oil price around 20 minutes before Iran's foreign minister announced on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open, another sizeable wager on the world's most traded commodity ahead of major announcements in the course of the Middle East war. Large, well‑timed trades in recent months have drawn concern from U.S. lawmakers and legal experts that decisions around war and diplomacy can give some traders an edge in volatile and opaque derivatives markets."
Amanda Cooper, Traders Place Big Bet On Falling Oil, Reuters, 17 April 2026
"Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Tabatabaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian presidency, dismissed claims made by U.S. President Donald Trump as 'baseless statements of the enemy,' including his claim that Iran agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. Tabatabaei added that if the U.S. reneges on its promises, they will face 'dire consequences'."
Al Jazeera, 17 April 2026
"Wars do not usually result from just causes but from pretexts. There probably never was a just cause why men should slaughter each other by wholesale, but there are such things as ambition, selfishness, folly, madness, in communities as in individuals, which become blind and bloodthirsty, not to be appeased save by havoc, and generally by the killing of somebody else than themselves."
William Tecumseh Sherman, Michigan Military Academy, 19 June 1879
"This week, I am introducing legislation to end a war that should have ended long ago, the war in Afghanistan. The United States has been fighting The War on Terror since October of 2001 and it has cost 6 trillion dollars."
Senator Rand Paul, Repeal the 2001 Authorization for Military Force, March 5, 2019
“The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the structure of society intact. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”
George Orwell, 1984, June 1949
Today was a stock market index option expiration.
Markets exploded higher on the news that Iran is offering to continue to discuss the cessation of hostilities given the recent ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which was one of their key negotiating conditions.
There seems to be some discontinuity between what has been agreed and what is being reported.
But apparently an enormous short position on the price of oil was placed about 20 minutes before this latest development was announced.
Gold and silver rallied and then fell back a bit.
The Dollar slumped and then recovered.
Bitcoin rallied and may have broken out of its trading range, again.
VIX wallowed in a tide of good feelings.
Let's hope that a lasting peace is being slowly cobbled out of this pernicious 'fog of war.'
We'll know more as this continues to unfold. Watch their actions, moreso than listen to their words.
Some new realities seem to be emerging, with striking roots in the wisdom of the ages.
"The humility of the righteous will guide them, but the deceitfulness of the proud will destroy them." Proverbs 11:3
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in God abide in love, and love in them.
Have a pleasant weekend.
