This article raises a good point, namely that since the end of the Second World War, we have not fought any "total" wars, but only "limited" wars.  This is a huge point.  A total war means a fight to the existential finish.  One combatant survives with their way of life intact, the other either does not survive or does so with a radically different outlook towards the future.  They become fundamentally transformed as part of the process of remaining alive.

America decimated Nazi Germany (with substantial assistance from the Soviet Union) and Japan (mostly on our own).  From the ashes of these crushed societies came the modern states we now see.  However, since then, our war aims have been far more limited and completely beholden to the political exigencies of the moment usually confined within a narrow horizon.  When fighting a war with limited aims, it does become rather difficult to mobilize effective resources and public support because the public has no incentive to see sacrifice as something necessary given the nature of the "limited" stakes involved.  The western world has become so limited in its response to so many things that the tragedy of it all is that one day, something, somewhere is going to explode in an unimaginable way.  When that happens, the concept of "limited" will itself become limited and we will see what total war really looks like.  This will be a sad day for us and a catastrophe for those who are on the receiving end. 

I think we need to understand this.  Sloganeering for "peace" and bumper stickers channeling the ghost of John Lennon's "Imagine" are at their core as ephemeral as the most recent fashion craze.  Humanity has moved moutains to control its less savory aspects, yet those same components are aways there, beneath the surface.  Our hopes, our Lincolnian "Better Angels" can rise above all, but this happens only when we have stared into the abyss.  It is that very act of staring that allows us a chance to reconnect with what we hope we can be yet we cannot escape from the first look.

I hope we never again see the totality of war because I wonder if we, as humans, any longer have the capacity to understand the lessons of our forefathers.  I pray that we are not so enraptured by the illusory siren song of "progress" that we lose our ability to appreciate all facets of what we are capable of.  If we are so enraptured, then "total" war will give us all a bitter pill to swallow along our path to reconnecting with humanity's past.