If all you know about United States history came from elementary through high school social studies classes, or even college/university courses, chances are you’ll find reading Addicted to War an eye-opening experience. Those familiar with the writings of Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Chalmers Johnson, and Seymour Hersh will discover a concise compilation of their works on U.S. history. The 77 mostly illustrated pages include several pages of reference notes and credits for photos and drawings not done by the author.

Author/illustrator Joel Andreas has a Ph.D. in sociology from UCLA and teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Attending anti-Viet Nam War demonstrations with his parents when he was a boy awakened his activist spirit.

Though Addicted to War is written and illustrated in a comic book format, it engenders few laughs but provides a wealth of information and outrage. It has received the endorsement of Veterans for Peace and sports laudatory blurbs from Zinn, Chomsky, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Born on the Fourth of July author Ron Kovic, and many others.

Addicted to War is an easy read, in part due to the comic book format, but also because the author has divided the work into well-organized chapters. The mostly chronological contents include Manifest Destiny, The Cold War, The New World Order, The War on Terrorism, The War Profiteers, The High Price of Militarism, Militarism and the Media, Resisting Militarism, and Do Something About It.

Many points are hammered home by the visuals that clearly illustrate the subject matter. Through the combination of images and verbiage, the author shows, in no uncertain terms, how money travels from taxpayers’ pockets to corporate war profiteers, how U.S. aggression around the world brings retaliation, how we have lost civil rights protections, how the media beats the war drums, and who controls the media, among other issues.

We cite here five infobits from the book. Did you know that: 1) “President Teddy Roosevelt in 1897 said, ‘I shall welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one’.” 2) “Between 1898 and 1934, the Marines invaded Cuba 4 times, Nicaragua 5 times, Honduras 7 times, the Dominican Republic 4 times, Haiti twice, Guatemala once, Panama twice, Mexico 3 times, and Colombia 4 times!” 3) “President Harry Truman, in 1945: ‘We pray that God might guide us to use [the Bomb] in His ways and for His purposes’.” 4) “Today, bloody U.S.-backed counter-insurgency wars continue in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and other countries. In Colombia, a corrupt U.S.-backed army fights alongside paramilitary forces that have slaughtered whole villages and hundreds of opposition union leaders and politicians. The U.S. has been getting more deeply involved, under the cover of the ‘War on Drugs’, providing billions of dollars of arms used to continue the killing.” 5) “While the killing continues in Afghanistan and Iraq, Pentagon strategists are busy planning the next round of wars.”

A dispassionate observer can only conclude that the U.S. is the number one aggressor in the world and has been for much of its history. As highly decorated Marine Major General Smedley Butler once said, “War is a racket,” and “I was a gangster for capitalism.”

The sentiments in Addicted to War dovetail nicely with the message contained in Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, the cover story in this issue of CS2.

Addicted to War would make a fine text for use in high school and college classes, and indeed has found its way into hundreds of classrooms. You can find it at Amazon.com or order it through a book store. May we suggest that at $10 (book store price) or $8 (Amazon.com), it is a perfect and inexpensive purchase with the gift-giving season upon us. Give one to your friends, family, libraries, your representative in Congress, and your U.S. senators. It would make a lovely inauguration gift for President-elect Obama.

We recommend that Addicted to War be must reading for every member of the U.S. House and Senate as well as the president. One would hope that, armed with the information this book provides, the quality of debate and the wisdom of votes would improve. We don’t want a member of Congress ever again to tell us that they were lied to and hoodwinked into voting for an unnecessary war. An informed legislature, recognizing that the U.S. is Addicted to War, can stop feeding this monster. After all, isn’t the first step in conquering addiction acknowledging it?