This timely book explores the changes in the philosophy and management of the US military in modern times, the vision and wisdom of our founding fathers in regards to a standing military, and how we have drifted away from the wise choices our forefathers purposefully made.  Maddow manages to control what I regard as a sweet sarcastic tone in her voice until about 85% into the book as she takes us in detail through some of the toughest times our nation has faced, and the decisions and rationale that resulted from mixing politics, economics and military force.  She starts in detail with Johnson and the escalation in Southeast Asia, the fall of Saigon, Grenada, Cosovo, the Balkans, Iraq/Afghanistan; she has done an amazing amount of research for this treatise, and it shows in both her writing and in her analysis.  Her exploration of the industrialization of our war machine and the effect it has had on our ability and our willingness to make war is superb. 

As influential to my thinking as Apocalypse Now...
"Willard: [voice-over] "Someday this war's gonna end". That'd be just fine with the boys on the boat. They weren't looking for anything more than a way home. Trouble is, I'd been back there, and I knew that it just didn't exist anymore. "...