> The biggest lesson of ww2 is that once a major industrial war starts - the only end is mutual exhaustion. How does match the actual outcome? WW II ended in t

> The biggest lesson of ww2 is that once a major industrial war starts - the only end is mutual exhaustion. How does match the actual outcome? WW II ended in the complete defeat of Germany and Japan and post-war domination by the US and USSR, not least through their industrial capacity as well as possession of nuclear weapons. This does not seem very debatable. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you meant? edit: clarification