Yep there are lots of idiots and only slightly in partial defense of some of the idiots. Had we had a nuke, very likely Pearl would not have occurred. Also the process of building a nuke is very complicated and time consuming so not knowing that or anything about a nuke weapon, the average person would never realize what the "Manhattan Project" was all about. I would love to see the cost of building the nuke compared to the rest of the bucks spent on WWII. I would guess about one half.
Just recall the fundamental particle, the neutron was first discovered in 1932. Only 13 years before the first detonation ( in New Mexico) of a nuke. Another 13 years got us the first commercial nuke power plant (Shippingport, PA, 1958.
I mention neutrons in the unlikely event persons might not know, nukes operate by the rapid fissioning of a fuel by neutrons.

--------------------

Not to brag, but I scored 30 out of 30. However, in my defense, I do have 3 degrees in American History.

My dad was in the Marines during WW2. He seldom spoke about his exploits until he was on his deathbed. Initially, my dad was one of Adm. Halsey's Personal Marine Detachment, 1st Marine Division ("Just a fancy name for Halsey's body guards," my dad claimed). He held that honor for a while; even managing to "liberate" some of Halsey's silver dinnerware (which I now have) before being transferred to a rifle company. He was among the first ashore on Okinawa. He and one of his squad-mates were sharing an outer perimeter foxhole during one of the Japanese many attacks. My dad said he emptied his M1 several times and was just about out of ammo when the Japanese soldiers finally reached their fox hole. My dad was shot in the knee. His squad-mate was shot twice and then bayoneted.

My dad shot and killed the Japanese soldier who'd killed his squad-mate, plus two more that were attacking their, specific, hole, including the one who'd bayoneted his squad-mate, before he was out of ammo. Oddly, at that point, their Japanese retreated back to their lines, allowing the Marine to gather-up their dead and wounded. My dad was evacuated back to a field hospital for surgery to remove the bullet in his leg. Six weeks later, he was allowed to return to his squad and finished out the battle. For this and subsequent actions, he was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Silver Star Medal.

His older brother was a Sherman tank commander with Patton's armies; beginning with Patton in North Africa; going with him to Sicily; then, with his 3rd Army in France. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge and ended the war crossing the Rhine River and hooking-up with Russians west of Berlin.

As for myself, in a nut-shell, I joined the Navy in 1970. Went to Pensacola NAS and graduated a Naval Flight Officer. January 1973, found me stationed aboard the USS Midway as an F-4 Phantom NFO/RIO (back seat rider), attached to VF-161. On our 3rd mission, we were shot down by a SAM. My "stick" (pilot) was vaporized as the missile took out the front of our aircraft, just as his seat cleared the canopy rails. (Ejection sequence of an F-4 Phantom was that the back seat ejected 1.5 seconds before the front seat to avoid the 2 aviators from smashing into each other.). Pete was a married man with 2 small kids and a drop-dead, built like a 2 story brick outhouse, beautiful wife. I was unmarried with no kids.

I splashed just a couple of hundred yards from the North Vietnam shore. Immediately, NVA soldiers were on the beach and I was taking fire. In just a few minutes, a Rescue chopper was overhead. Someone tossed me an M16 and I emptied it firing back toward shore. Then, a gunship arrived and took care of the enemy on the shore while I was hauled aboard the Rescue chopper. I left the Navy in September of 1973, being unable to pass the medical physical to return to flying.

------------
Armed conflict, or "a military war" is simply an extension of a country's foreign policy. What the government chooses to call it is its prerogative at the time. Since the 1950's the theory of "limited warfare" has been at the forefront of our military policy makers. It's an effort to keep military conflict restricted to a specific geographical area and not allowed to expand to a "world war." This is also the basis of the proliferation of our nuclear arsenals in the 1960's. By having so many nuclear weapons at our disposal, the concept of "Mutually Assured Destruction" (MAD), did a lot to keep conflicts relatively local in their respective theaters. Now-a-days, the insanity of nuclear proliferation has led to the implementation of the "Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties" (SALT). Supposedly, both sides agree to reducing their nuclear arsenals and have the draw-downs verified by on-site inspectors.

If one is concerned about the expansion of Presidential War Powers, you need look no further than to Congress. It's the body that has voted time and again to give the President more and more power in terms of when and how to send our troops into an armed conflict without a 'declaration of war' from Congress. Some of it is understandable. Whe the Constitution was written, it took months for one country to invade and conquer another country. Now, with the launching of nuclear and conventionally armed missiles and their arrival time to target measured in minutes, it's not possible for a Congress to gather and grasp the eminent dangers approaching. So, Congress has given the President (aka Commander-in-Chief) the authority to militarily address anything he perceives as a threat to the country.

Where the issue is, is in determining if what the President calls a threat is, in fact, a real threat, based on verified data and facts. In our recent history (taking the Gulf of Tonkin Incident/Resolution as a beginning point), we've seen our military sent into other countries based on false data and manufactured information designed to trick the country into favoring a war.

However, with the election of Trumpet, who knows what he will do along the lines of nuclear arsenal reduction?

In any case, though, anytime someone in our military dies in an armed conflict, it was a "war" to them.