The military historian Russell Weigley once posited that the dominant characteristic of “the American Way of War,” as he called it, was to amass overwhelming resources in order to deliver vastly superior firepower against the enemy. After all, America’s great advantage over her foes, at least since the middle of the nineteenth century, has been superior wealth and industrial productivity. Because of that, the United States could afford to expend dollars rather than the blood of its citizens to secure victory.33
