Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism

Addicted to War takes on the most active, powerful, and destructive military in the world.

Hard-hitting, carefully documented and heavily illustrated, it reveals why the United States has been involved in more wars in recent years than any other country. Read Addicted to War to find out who benefits from these military adventures, who pays and who dies. Over 450,000 copies of the previous editions are in print.

This edition is substantially reworked and fully updated including Barack Obama’s drone wars, Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks, statistics on military spending, and the ongoing costs and consequences of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Praise

“Addicted to War is must reading for all Americans who are concerned with understanding the true nature of US foreign policy and how it affects us here at home.”
—Martin Sheen, actor

“Addicted to War is a rare gift to the American people. It should be read by every person who cares about the human condition. This book reveals truths that all Americans need to understand if we are ever to experience peace and justice for all the people of the earth.”
—Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of School of the Americas Watch

“This book analyzes why men are addicted to fighting and killing—an addiction that could, in this the nuclear age, destroy all life on earth, creating the final epidemic of the human race.”
—Helen Caldicott, pediatrician and author of Missile Envy

“Addicted to War graphically exposes the US propensity to make war and should be required reading in every school in the country, including military schools!”
—Ann Wright, Retired US Army Reserve Colonel who resigned in 2003 to oppose the Iraq war

“As we’re goose-stepping our way into the new millennium, Addicted to War provides us with an opportunity to see ourselves as others see us.”
—Kris Kristofferson, singer/songwriter

“Political comics at its best. Bitterly amusing, lively, and richly informative. For people of all ages who want to understand the link between US militarism, foreign policy, and corporate greed at home and abroad.”
—Michael Parenti, author of History as Mystery and To Kill a Nation

“Addicted to War makes one point perfectly clear: We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can’t bomb it into peace!”
—Michael Franti, musician

“The enormous criminal impact of US militarism on the people of the world and the US is hard to grasp. This book makes it easier to understand. Now we must act.”
—Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General

“Addicted to War should be required reading for every student in America. I encourage educators to use it to help students understand the consequences of US militarism for people here and around the world.”
—Rev. J.M. Lawson, colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1957–68

“Our young people will learn more about the cult of militarism in this short and accurate book by Joel Andreas than they might learn in their first twelve years of schooling.”
—Blase Bonpane, director of Office of the Americas

“Addicted to War is the BEST primer on why the US goes to war and the devastating consequences of our addiction. It should be in high schools, colleges, churches, libraries, and community centers. It should be gifted to graduates and passed on to relatives and colleagues. Why? Because there’s no other book about such a profound—and depressing—topic as war that is so much fun to read!”
—Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK and author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control

“Read this book!”
—Cindy Sheehan, founding member of Gold Star Families for Peace

“The idiocy of war is apparent. What is amazing is that no matter the tracts, essays and books telling us this through the ages, we resist that truth. Hopefully this political comic by Joel Andreas can pierce the tough hide of man’s mind and heart.”
—Edward Asner, actor

“The US arrogantly plunders resources and cultures to support its American Way of Life. Addicted to War illustrates why the US is necessarily dependent upon war to feed its shameful consumption patterns.”
—S. Brian Willson, Vietnam veteran, anti-war activist

“For those who have created a wall in their mind to resist questioning what the powers-that-be have taught them, this book may be the right battering ram.”
—William Blum, author of Killing Hope and Rogue State

“Lots of people wonder why the US is always going to war one place or another around the world. I tell them to read Addicted to War.”
—Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman from Georgia

“This book has educated more people than the past decade’s worth of the New York Times and done so with more humor, erudition, and wisdom. This is a book to buy in bulk and give to everyone you know. The tide is starting to turn.”
—David Swanson, author of War Is a Lie

“This is the most important comic book ever written. To be a true patriot (in the American revolutionary sense) is to understand the cruelty of US foreign policy. Read this book and pass it on to as many people as you can.”
—Woody Harrelson, actor

“I’ve come to the conclusion that if we don’t change from a value system based on love of money and power to one based on love of compassion and generosity we will be extinct this century. We need a brief earthquake to wake up humanity. Addicted to War is such an earthquake.”
—Patch Adams, M.D., founder of Gesundheit Institute, Vietnam War-era conscientious objector

“How can we wean ourselves from our dismal addiction to war? This book is a fine starting point. Reading it will help people get on the road to recovery.”
—Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness

“War may be the ‘health of the state,’ as Randolph Bourne warned when a pacifist population was being driven to World War I by hysterical propaganda, but it is the curse of the people—the attackers and the victims. With spare and acid clarity, these snapshots of the real world brilliantly tell us why and how we must rid ourselves of this curse, quickly, or else descend into barbarism and destruction.”
—Noam Chomsky, author and Professor Emeritus, MIT

“Addicted to War should be assigned reading in US schools because it tells the true history of this nation’s culture of war. Many young students will think twice before considering enlistment in the military. How different things might have been had my son had a chance to read it. However, it’s not too late for many thousands of young Americans.”
—Fernando Suarez del Solar, father of Jesús Suarez del Solar, who died fighting in Iraq

“As a veteran of three wars, World War II through Vietnam, with 33 years of Army service, I find this book to be the most truthful recitation of our government’s policies available anywhere.”
—Col. James Burkholder US Army, retired

“The suffering from militarism is so vast and deep that the United States can only cope with the realities by denying them. Addicted to War directly confronts the denial. The result is education, agitation, and inspiration to create a world that affirms and sustains life instead of destroying it.”
—Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, co-Founder of RootsAction

“Addicted To War powerfully exposes how and why war and militarism have become so entrenched in the US and why we must work urgently to free ourselves from a war system that has brought so much death and destruction to the US and the world.”
—David Vine, professor of Anthropology and author of The United States of War

“While there is certainly nothing funny about war, the comic book, Addicted to War, somehow brilliantly, and with a light touch, lays out the horrors of war, and the case against it, better than I’ve ever seen it done before. The great beauty of the book is that it is readable and persuasive for young and old alike. If I were head of the Department of Education in America, it would be distributed to every classroom in America. And to my utter amazement the new, up-dated, version is even more compelling than the previous edition!”
—Jim Lafferty, executive director emeritus of the National Lawyers Guild, L.A., host of The Lawyers Guild Show on KPFK

“Addicted to War is a necessary addition to any contemporary understanding of the socio-political aspects of peace and war in the world today.”
—Peter Phillips, author of Giants: The Global Power Elite and former director of Project Censored

“Addicted to War explains in a well-researched and easy-to-read format, the ways in which US wars have always been fought to protect the interests of large corporations, including “defense” contractors. It is a critical resource for all students of the history of US militarism.”
—Marjorie Cohn, writer, commentator, radio host, and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, who has published four books about the “war on terror.”

“Addicted to War is a brilliant graphic history that is still our best educational tool to expose this deadly connection. We pay an ever-steeper human cost for the corporate addiction to military profits. The US has the highest numbers of COVID infections and deaths in the world. This is the cost of endless US wars. The Pentagon, as the number one polluter, creates climate crises that threaten the planet. Every year militarism grows while living standards decline.
—Sara Flounders, author and activist, International Action Center, SanctionsKill Campaign

About the Author

Joel Andreas began following his parents to demonstrations against the Vietnam War while in elementary school in Detroit. He has been a political activist ever since, working to promote racial equality and workers’ rights inside the United States and to stop US military intervention abroad. After working as an automobile assembler, a printer, and a civil engineering drafter, he completed a doctoral degree in sociology at the University of California in Los Angeles, studying the aftermath of the 1949 Chinese Revolution. He now teaches at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is the author of Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism and Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China’s New Class.

Click here for one-page information sheet on this product