the concept of limited war is not new. the military theorist carl von clausewitz (1780-1831) wrote about two kinds of war. in the first kind, the goal is total destruction of an enemy. when that is not possible, the second type is limited war. this is most often because one of the parties to the war does not have the capability of completely annihilating their enemy. the napoleonic wars (1803-1815), world war i (1914-19) and world war ii (1939-1945) are considered total wars. any war that is limited by geography, resources, goals or a war that is intentionally limited by the participants is a limited war.