Leo Strauss Quote - The Criminality Is at the Heart of Imperialism

Aaron Carroll: The criminality is at the heart of imperialism and when I saw that quote it immediately made me think of War as a racket by Smedley Butler who has a very similar quote. He says he helped to turn Mexico Haiti and Cuba basically into colonies of the US in early part of 20th century. Strauss is just defending him right in an oblique way without really owning up to it, but they're basically acknowledging the same thing. It's like you need to be a gangster in foreign policy because there's nobody to protect you so you just have to become as powerful as possible.