Gulf War I featured attrition. It even brought the neologism “attritted”. The US imposed attrition on the Iraqi armies in the field, and the Iraqis allowed it (rather than attacking or withdrawing).
Roosevelt said that at the end of 1940. He was desperately trying to raise awareness of the fate of the world. At the time the isolationists were impeding war spending and the citizenry was in no mood for restrictions now that the country was finally exiting the Depression. He got only a fraction of the manufacturing capability he needed because the will to help Europe as if it were America simply did not exist.
A year later, the will existed. Total war meant that every aspect of life was modified to fit war needs. The will stayed in place for three years and then evaporated on V-J Day. It has never returned and hopefully no need will ever arise. We cannot today imagine an America that is more than 1% committed to war. Comparisons to WWII are meaningless without that all-consuming totality.
World War I was such a debacle, it is completely understandable at the time why Americans said “Let them kill each other, stay away” in the 30’s. It would be more remarkable if it were any other way. The geopolitical world is still largely FUBAR from it and has never really recovered.
The reappearance of this thread made me wonder if there were more up to date relevant charts or maps. Best I could quickly Google is shown below.