Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Updated

"Science," the Greek word for knowledge, when appended to the word "political," creates what seems like an oxymoron. For who could claim to know politics? More complicated than any game, most people who play it become addicts and die without understanding what they were addicted to. The rest of us suffer under their malpractice as our "leaders." A truer case of the blind leading the blind could not be found. Plumb the depths of confusion here.

Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Updated

Postby admin » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:35 am

Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Updated to Include the War in Iraq)
an illustrated expose by Joel Andreas
© 2004 by Joel Andreas
Over 200,000 in print
Endorsed by Veterans for Peace

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


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Table of Contents:

• Opening Pages
• Author's Preface to the 2004 Edition
• Publisher's Note
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Manifest Destiny
• Chapter 2: The Cold War
• Chapter 3: The New World Order
• Chapter 4: The War on Terrorism
• Chapter 5: The War Profiteers
• Chapter 6: The High Price of Militarism
• Chapter 7: Militarism and the Media
• Chapter 8: Resisting Militarism
• The Next Chapter: Do Something About It!
• Reference Notes
• Photo and Drawing Credits

Sources are listed starting on page 73 and are referenced throughout the book with circled numbers. All quotes in "quotation marks" are actual quotes.

"During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a serious military competitor for the United States. Today, the U.S. maintains a huge war machine despite the lack of any serious competition. The U.S. military budget is now larger than the next 25 biggest spenders put together! It makes up a full 36% of total global military spending. ... If we add up the current Pentagon budget, the nuclear weapons budget of the Energy Department, the military portion of the NASA budget, foreign military aid, veterans' benefits, interest payments on debt incurred by past military spending and other military-related expenses, the U.S. spends over $776 billion a year to feed its addiction to war. That's more than a million dollars a minute!"

***

"Those who survive continue to be haunted by the wars they fought in. Half a million veterans of the Vietnam War suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder -- caused by memories of the horrors of the war. The number of Vietnam vets who have killed themselves since the war is greater than the number of U.S. soldiers who died in the war."

-- Addicted to War, by Joel Andreas
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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"Addicted to War is must reading for all Americans who are concerned with understanding the true nature of U.S. 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 is a tremendous tool that could change the course of our nation. It must be published in the millions and taught in every school in America."
Russell Means
American Indian patriot

"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 U.S. militarism, foreign policy, and corporate greed at home and abroad."
Michael Parenti
Author of History as Mystery and To Kill a Nation

"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

"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, Spearhead

"The enormous criminal impact of U.S. militarism on the people of the world and the U.S. is hard to grasp. This book makes it easier to understand. Now we must act."
Ramsey Clark*
Former U.S. 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 U.S. militarism for people here and around the world."
Rev. J. M. Lawson
Colleague of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1957-1968

"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 could not be more timely. It shows that the current war dance by the Bush administration is just the latest in a long series of foreign adventures that cause more damage than reward for us as a country. This book is one of the best tools we could hope for in making a transition from the U.S. being an empire to being just one nation in a community of nations. Use it, and change the world!"
Medea Benjamin and Kevin Danaher
Co-founders of Global Exchange

"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

"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 Kelley
Founder of Voices in the Wilderness
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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"Many years ago in Korea, I believed I was serving a righteous cause. When reality jarred my assumptions, I first reacted angrily. My honor was offended. Then I met other ex-military who helped me understand that while my motives were good, the policies I was asked to support were not. We banded together to use our experience to help head off future wars through education. One of our most effective tools is Addicted to War."
Wilson (Woody) Powell*
Executive Director of Veterans for Peace

"The U.S., with 4.5% of the world's population, arrogantly plunders resources and cultures to support its American way of life. Addicted to War illustrates why the U.S. is necessarily dependent upon war to feed its shameful consumption patterns."
S. Brian Willson*
Vietnam veteran, anti-war activist

"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

"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 U.S. foreign policy. Read this book and pass it on to as many people as you can."
Woody Harrelson
Actor

* Served in the U.S. military

ADDICTED TO WAR -- WHY THE U.S. CAN'T KICK MILITARISM
an illustrated expose by Joel Andreas
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

Postby admin » Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:36 am

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Third edition copyright 2004 by Joel Andreas. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. ISBN: 1 904859-01-1

Requests to reprint all or part of Addicted to War should be addressed to:

Frank Dorrel
P.O. Box 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
(310) 838-8131
fdorrel@addictedtowar.com
www.addictedtowar.com

AK Press (US)
674-A 23rd Street
Oakland, CA 94612-1163
USA
akpress@akpress.org
www.akpress.org

To order more copies:

For information about ordering more copies of Addicted to War, contact either Frank Dorrel or AK Press. Please ask about bulk rates! Addicted to War is also available through your local bookstore and online book dealers. To receive an AK Press catalog, please write or visit the AK Press website.

To order Addicted to War in other languages:

A Spanish edition of Addicted to War will soon be published in the United States by Frank Dorrel and AK Press (please write to the addresses above). The book has also been translated into Japanese, Korean, Thai, Danish, and German, and soon will be available in other languages. To find out how to obtain copies of these translated editions, see: www.addictedtowar.com.

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 U.S. 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 Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Addicted to War is Joel's third illustrated expose. He wrote and drew The Incredible Rocky, an unauthorized biography of the Rockefeller family (which sold nearly 100,000 copies) while a student at Berkeley High School in California. He also wrote another comic book, Made with Pure Rocky Mountain Scab Labor, to support a strike by Coors brewery workers
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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Author's Preface to the 2004 Edition

I wrote the first edition of Addicted to War after the U.S. war against Iraq in 1991. The major news media had been reduced to wartime cheerleaders, and people in this country had largely been shielded from the ugly realities of the war. My aim was to present information difficult to find in the mainstream media, and to explain America's extraordinary predilection to go to war. Ten years later, events compelled me to update the book. The September 11 attacks provided an opportunity for George W. Bush to declare a "War on Terrorism," which in practice turned out to be an endless binge of war-making. The second edition was published in early 2002, following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The Bush Administration then turned to preparing for a new war against Iraq. A thin rhetorical veneer about combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction hardly concealed its underlying aim: to impose a new U.S. client regime in the Middle East and assure control over a country that has the world's second largest known oil reserves. As the present edition goes to press, the U.S. is occupying Afghanistan and Iraq. In an effort to quell armed resistance, the U.S. military is taking the harsh punitive measures against the civilian populations of both countries, feeding a spiral of violence that has repercussions around the world and is placing us all in greater danger.

This book chronicles over two centuries of U.S. foreign wars, beginning with the Indian wars. During this time, America's machinery of war has grown into a behemoth that dominates our economy and society and extends around the globe. Although the Bush Administration has been particularly bellicose, this country's addiction to war began long before Bush came to power and will undoubtedly survive his departure. The costs of this growing addiction are now being felt more acutely at home. Soldiers and their families are paying the heaviest price, but everyone is affected. Skyrocketing military spending is contributing to huge government deficits, causing sharp cuts in domestic programs, including education, health care, housing, public transport, and environmental protection. At the same time, the "War on Terrorism" is being used as an excuse to step up police surveillance and erode our civil liberties. I hope this book will spur reflection and debate about militarism, and encourage creative action to change our direction.

It's impossible to thank all of the people who have contributed to the creation of this book here. Instead, I will mention only three: My mother, Carol Andreas, who introduced me to anti-war activities; my father, Carl Andreas, who first encouraged me to write the book; and Frank Dorrel, whose tireless promotion made a new edition both possible and irresistible.

Joel Andreas, May 2004

Publisher's Note

I first read the original 1992 edition of Addicted to War three years ago. I located the author, Joel Andreas, and convinced him to update the book. In 2002, I published a new edition with the help of AK Press. The response has been tremendous. Since then, over 100,000 copies have been distributed in the United States. Addicted to War is being used as a textbook by many high school and college teachers. Peace organizations are selling the book at anti-war rallies, teach-ins, and smaller events. It is showing up in schools, churches, and public libraries. More and more bookstores are carrying it, including progressive independents, national chains, and comic book stores. Individuals are ordering multiple copies to give to friends, co-workers, and relatives. I have received thousands of calls, email messages, and letters from people telling me how much they love this book!

A Japanese translation of Addicted to War has sold over 70,000 copies and editions in Korean, German, Spanish,. Danish, Thai and other languages have been published or are in the works. There are also plans to make an animated documentary film based on the book. All these versions will help get the book's anti-war message out to greater numbers of people around the world.

I want to thank Joel Andreas for giving us a powerful educational tool that reveals the sad and painful truth about U.S. militarism. Thanks to Yumi Kikuchi for her support and for making the Japanese edition of Addicted to War possible. We are honored that some of America's most courageous peace educators and activists have endorsed the book. Special thanks to my friends, to my family, and to S. Brian Willson, for supporting this project from the beginning.

Finally, I want to thank you -- the reader -- for your concern about the issues addressed in this book. I encourage you to use it to help bring about a change of consciousness in this country. Please consider taking a copy to a teacher who might use it in class. Take a copy to your church, synagogue, or mosque. Send one to your congressperson, city council member, or someone in the media. Show it to friends and family. Education is the key. It's up to each of us to do our part. People around the world are counting on us to end our country's addiction to war.

Frank Dorrel, May 2004
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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Introduction

Our story begins on a Friday afternoon.

Yeow! Look at all the money the government took out of my paycheck!

Later that evening:

Mom--they want you to help at a bake sale so my school can buy toilet paper.

First no books and now no toilet paper! Do they have anything at your school?

At the next school board meeting:

I'm sorry, the local tax base is declining and we get very little help from the federal government. There's just no money!

What do they do with all the taxes I pay?

A huge part of the money the IRS takes out of our paychecks goes to support the military. Military spending adds up to more than half of the Federal Government's annual discretionary spending.

Federal Discretionary Budget 2003 fiscal year: Military spending 51%; Everything else 49%, including education spending, 7%. [1]

No wonder there's no toilet paper!
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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The United States maintains the largest and most powerful military in history. U.S. warships dominate the oceans, its missiles and bombers can strike targets on every continent, and hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops are stationed overseas. Every few years the U.S. sends soldiers, warships and warplanes to fight in distant countries. Many countries go to war, but the U.S. is unique in both the size and power of its military and its propensity to use it.

The costs of being a military superpower and waging wars around the world are high. Because hundreds of billions of dollars are funneled to the Pentagon every year, the government skimps on providing for basic needs of people here at home. Cutbacks in social programs have caused far more devastation in this country than any foreign army ever has.

But the costs of U.S. foreign wars are more than simply economic. They include the lives of the soldiers who never come home.

Foreign wars also bring bloody retaliation against the U.S.--such as the terrorist attacks that took the lives of thousands of people at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

Despite the high costs in money and lives, the government seems determined to keep going to war, putting us all in harm's way!
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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But why is the United States always getting into wars?

Good question!

Two centuries ago, the United States was a collection of thirteen small colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Today it dominates the globe in a way that even the most powerful of past empires could not have imagined.

The path to world power has not been peaceful.

Chapter 1: Manifest Destiny

The American revolutionaries who rose up against King George in 1776 spoke eloquently about the right of every nation to determine its own destiny.

"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them.." (Thomas Jefferson, from the Declaration of Independence, 1776)

Unfortunately, after they won the right to determine their own destiny they thought they should determine everyone else's too!

The leaders of the newly independent colonies believed that they were preordained to rule all of North America. This was so obvious to them that they called it "Manifest Destiny." [2]

"We must march from ocean to ocean .... It is the destiny of the white race." (Representative Giles of Maryland)
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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This "manifest destiny" soon led to genocidal wars against the Native American peoples. The U.S. army ruthlessly seized their land, driving them west and slaughtering those who resisted.

During the century that followed the American Revolution, the Native American peoples were defeated one by one, their lands were taken, and they were confined to reservations. The number of dead has never been counted. But the tragedy did not end with the dead. The Native peoples' way of life was devastated. [3]

"I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream ... the nation's hoop is broken and scattered." [4] (Black Elk, spiritual leader of the Lakota people and survivor of the Wounded Knee massacre in South Dakota.)

By 1848 the United States had seized nearly half of Mexico's territory (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas).

In Congress the war against Mexico was justified with speeches about the glory of expanding "Anglo-Saxon democracy," but in truth it was the Southern slave owners' thirst for land and the lure of Western gold that inspired these speeches. [5]

General Zachary Taylor ordered scores of U.S. soldiers executed for refusing to fight in Mexico.
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Re: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism (Upd

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With their domain now stretching from coast to coast the "Manifest Destiny" crowd began to dream of an overseas empire. Economic factors drove these ambitions. Col. Charles Denby, a railroad magnate and an ardent expansionist, argued:

"Our condition at home is forcing us to commercial expansion ... Day by day, production is exceeding home consumption ... We are after markets, the greatest markets in the world."

Calls for empire were echoing through the halls of Washington.

"I firmly believe that when any territory outside the present territorial limits of the United States becomes necessary for our defense or essential for our commercial development, we ought to lose no time in acquiring it." (Senator Orville Platt of Connecticut, 1894) [7]

To become a world power the U.S. built a world-class navy. A gung-ho Theodore Roosevelt was put in charge of it. [8]

"I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one." (T. Roosevelt, 1897)

He didn't have long to wait.

The next year, taking a fancy to several Spanish colonies, including Cuba and the Phillipines, the U.S. declared war on Spain. Rebel armies were already fighting for independence in both countries and Spain was on the verge of defeat. Washington declared that it was on the rebels' side and Spain quickly capitulated. But the U.S. soon make it clear that it had no intention of leaving. [9]

"The Phillipines are ours forever ... and just beyond the Phillipines are China's illimitable markets ... the Pacific is our ocean." (Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana, 1900)

And for the Senator, the Pacific was only the beginning:

"The power that rules the Pacific is the power that rules the world ...That power is and will forever be the American Republic." [10]
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