Most Difficult and Challenging War?

In a New York Times article about the rift between Sen. John McCain and President Bush over the President's desire to sanction torture, I caught this quote from an editorial in the Manchester (NH) Union-Leader, a conservative paper:

“The question is being asked: in the midst of the most difficult and challenging war we have ever faced, can the nation afford a President McCain?” The Union-Leader — the largest newspaper in the state, which holds the nation’s first presidential primary — asked in a front-page editorial on Saturday.

Most difficult and challenging war we have ever faced? I wonder how old the editorial writer is? Or how well he or she knows American history? Gasoline and material resources were rationed during WWII. Ever family in the country was asked to sacrifice to support the war effort. Major hot wars were being fought all around the globe; cities were being annialated by saturation bombing; we dropped two atomic bombs. How does this war compare?

And that is just one example. The Civil War would be another conflict far more difficult and challenging to the nation's future than this war.

The problem is that the Manchester Union-Leader would, following the President, like to make this a conflict of civilizations - good against evil, Christian against Muslim. It isn't. But even if it were true, how would we know it? We aren't asked to sacrifice anything to support the war. There is no sense on Wall Street or main street that we are in the midst of an epic battle for the future of civilization.