Also, the following statement absolutely nails my concern. In the interest of brevity, there were several paths I didn't go down in my exploration of this topic. But yes, yes, yes, and yes to your thoughts here--I think we're seeing an unprecedented change of paradigm in the shifting of world powers where citizens and entire populations are utterly dispensable. I absolutely do fear that none of the old tenets still apply.

Sadly, however, if such an occupying force is not concerned with ruling a population, but is perfectly willing to genocide those people, that historical record no longer applies.