Not so with most Germans under Hitler, and an even greater percentage of Japanese under the Emperor. They were very gungho and as a people willing to support that tyrant right up to the end (that support wained faster amongst the Germans).
It is this, in my estimation, more than anything else that is allowing us to prosecute the type of "compassionate" or "progressive" war you speak of.
If was not because we were historically bound that we fought as we did in World War II. More than the technology, it was the nature of the enemy and the populations that suported their armies.
Clearly, the newer technology allows us to be more discriminant if that is called for ... but let those millions in Baghdad (or anywhere else) turn against our forces and be gungho in their production and support of thier leader (as they were in World War II) and things change quickly.
Our actions after World War II to the enemies we had just defeated and who had worked so hard to support a regime that was bent on uteerly destroying us ... tells us that we had the compassion then, even as we do now. The major difference, IMHO, was the will of the people whom we were fighting ... and it was a will that had to be broken if we were going to ultimately safe more lives.
Human nature has not changed in the intervening years. We have not faced such a foe (meaning an entire culture or people) in Iraq, or at any time in the last 20+ years. I pray we never do ... but sadly, I believe it is very possible.
Best
But they were already close to being defeated by conventional means. In Germany, after Dresden, production increased after we tried to bomb them in to submission. And in Japan, we had already defeated them handily at sea and we were destroying their war machine systematically prior to Fat Man and Little Boy.
The problem wasn't how to break their will but determine how strong their will was. In that respect it obviously wasn't that strong.
Remeber that in both Germany and Japan they had been completely isolated from oil that all emerging countries had converted to for energy. Germany was trying to convert to synthetic gas and we bombed all of their plants; Japan had made a stab at Indonesia and been destroyed.
When MacArthur rode through Honshu (sic) he did so in the only vehicle available: a steam propelled truck. They were out of oil.
My point is that the will of the people was broken, not by the force of bombs, but by the totality of the war. They were cutting down trees to heat their houses. It's hard to rise up based on ideology when you are freezing to death.
Best to you too bro.