Gwynne Dyer on the Development of War

• Summarize that evolution of war from "mass war" to "total war" as Dyer describes it.
  "Mass war" is simply war on a large scale. This is more closely exemplified by WWI, in the sheer numbers and production of military equipment produced and individuals involved (also large count of deaths and casualties).
  "Total war" involves all of the elements of mass war in addition to the totalitarian expansion of war into every possible aspect of society: economy (mobilized for the war), media/propaganda, civilian consumption/standard of living, and even politics. As Dyer notes,
  
   "So was the willingness of whole nations in arms, stiffened by patriotism and propaganda and harnessed by totalitarian controls (which were imposed in almost every warring country regardless of its peacetime political system) to accept the most terrible sacrifice without flinching" (War, 89).
  All in all, the evolution of total war from mass war is a grander version of, say, the arms race. Each nation continually strives to outdo the other to a point of no control, until weapons become more and more destructive, "to be used according to principles now universally accepted" (85). Thus, as Dyer maintains, if the means of war have become total, so must be the ends: total victory and unconditional surrender.
  

  Gen. Douglas MacArthur: "The only way you can meet force is by force."
  

  
  
• Key qualities of total war:

- Requires "total victory"

- Sacrifices of civilians

- "Propaganda lies become the truth..."; depict enemies as morally evil to build up civilian morale

- Total state control over citizens and economy; encroaches on government (dictatorship?)

- Attrition (analogous to blitzkrieg)

- War waged against civilian populations (bombers, tactics, preying on civilian morale, ATOM BOMB)

- The causes, aims, and means are no different than the devastating ends

• Is total war ethical?
  
  If we are to maintain any form of ethics within us as humanity, then NO NO NO it is not.                   
  One-sided view of the benefits of total war.