
“Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire” by Jonathan M. Katz (St. Martin's Press)
Plenty of U.S. veterans of the country’s 21-century “forever wars” — men and women who lost buddies and limbs to roadside bombs and suffer psychic scars — struggle to understand the why behind them. Some wonder: Were they instruments of less-than-noble imperialist adventures?