In World War I, Thomas Edison spent most of his time working on naval research. During World War II, Hollywood churned out one propaganda film after another.

During the Cold War, presidents of both parties demonstrated a steely resolve for decades to bring down the “Evil Empire.”

“It’s certainly the case that since 9/11, there has not been a kind of total societal commitment that would have been expected.”

During the War on Terror, the president studiously avoids references to America’s adversaries that could be construed as offensive, and the nation’s leading technology companies figure out ways to thwart anti-terrorism investigators.

It’s not your father’s (or your grandfather’s or great-grandfather’s) war effort.

“It’s certainly the case that since 9/11, there has not been a kind of total societal commitment that would have been expected,” said Kyle Shideler, director of threat assessment for the Washington-based Center for Security Policy.

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There are some signs that may be starting to change, in Europe at least. Several news organizations in France have announced they will no longer reprint photographs of terrorists in order to avoid “posthumous gratification,” according to the The Guardian. Shideler noted that France this month called up 12,000 police reserves to supplement the 120,000 police and soldiers already deployed around the country in response to recent terrorist attacks.

But Sebastian Gorka, the Major General Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory Marine Corps University, said he is not so sure. He noted that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for instance, still opposes placing any caps on Syrian refugees coming into her country — despite terrorist attacks that have resulted from this policy.

“We still haven’t come to the bottom of the bucket yet,” he said. “The disconnect between the operators … and their political masters is huge.”

Gorka, author of “Defeating Jihad,” said the United States never marshaled an all-out response to Islamic terrorism.

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“This is a huge problem, and it actually began under George Bush,” he said, referring to the former president’s exhortation that Americans should fight terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by shopping.

Part of the reason, Gorka said, is that a relatively small number of Americans personally have been impacted by terrorism.

“We have 1 percent of the population wearing the uniform. And that’s it,” he said.

After two Muslim extremists opened fire in December at an office Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, Apple resisted efforts by the FBI to gain access to the databanks of the iPhone possessed by Rizwan Farook. The company claimed privacy concerns — even though the phone belonged to his employer, the county government in San Bernardino.

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“Imagine if the government is in possession of a cellphone that it has reason to believe contains information about an imminent hijacking — or an effort to detonate a dirty bomb,” former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote last month in The Wall Street Journal. “Should we allow the manufacturer to refuse a court order to unlock it?”

Bloomberg noted that Twitter recently barred a company called Dataminr, which analyzes tweets to create breaking news alerts, from sharing data with U.S. intelligence agencies. Yet, the company sells the same information to financial firms and media outlets — including a state-owned media outlet in Russia.

“In other words: Twitter allows the KGB to access Dataminr, but not the CIA,” Bloomberg wrote.

Gorka said companies generally have no interest to helping the government: “It’s all about the bottom line. It’s all about making money.”

Shideler said the asymmetrical nature of the conflict makes it harder for average citizens to relate — compared with World War II when most young men were fighting and women and children were saving tin cans for the war effort.

“The conflict takes place on an ideological level rather than the nation-state level,” he said.

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Gorka said people routinely misquote Sun Tzu’s famous quote about knowing your enemy. The ancient Chinese military strategist wrote in “The Art of War” that it is important to know not just your enemy but yourself.

“We don’t know why we are fighting,” Gorka said. “We don’t know what we are fighting for. And in many cases, we don’t even want to admit we’re at war.”

Shideler said he is not sure what it would take to alter the way Americans approach Islamic terrorism other than the horrible impact of frequent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. He contrasted how Americans would react to a bag abandoned on a park bench to the reaction it would provoke in Israel.

“It’s really dramatically different,” he said.

Gorka said a new direction requires something else.

“It would take leadership,” he said.