The civil war also had some cannons blasting... but the weapons were VERY different. A well trained soldier was shooting 2-3 bullets per minute in the civil war. WW2 machine guns were 25 rounds per second. There is no comparison of the destruction capabilities...

Sure, but at a limited scale. And the Germans knew that a trench duel was unwinnable going into ww1, hence the Schlieffen-plan. The intention was to take out France in aug 1914 and then swing around before Russia was even fully mobilized.

The major turning points were still more like battles from the Napoleonic Wars than WWI.

It's also much easier with hindsight to view them as precursors to the trench warfare of WWI. But I believe contemporaries viewed it more like classic siege warfare.

WWI occurred in a brief window where defensive technology/strategy was much more effective* than offensive technology/strategy.

*defense almost ways is easier, but it was much more than normal in that period.

I agree that that is a problem with the system back then (and even now considering how much military power is under the POTUS). Regardless, those are the ones that are in charge so I think it is fair to say we, as in the society was not prepared for those conflicts.

And this repeated itself in the second world war. The late battles near japanese homeland were the first to reach the United States population without the heroic and patriotic filtering, all thanks to the work of Tom Lea.