There have certainly been many historical riots and breakdowns of the civil order, both in this country and abroad. I believe that you are right about peoples reactions to warfare as such but we won't likely ever face such warfare as your historical references are based upon in the developed (read nuclear) world. There will be no land invasion by thousands of soldiers made upon a nuclear power. That stopped with Hiroshima - Nagasaki. These types of warfare will be practiced as needed in countries that cannot yet protect themselves in such a definitive way. What the developed world will experience is attacks upon it's peace, security and infrastructure. These are just the sorts of attacks that could cause civil societal collapse. Think of the looting and lawlessness that was reported after hurricane Andrew. Think of the riots in LA, Boston, NY throughout the 20'th century. There are two main causes - revolutionary forces diss-affected with the govt. and disruption of normal social infrastructure that we have come to take for granted such as sewer and power. A blackout of a few days while the Radio stations stay on the air and spread audio valium about how it is an innocent mishap and will be emminently fixed is one thing but a month long blackout that knocks all local radio off the air and disrupts phone service, combined with the strategic removal of a few bridges might be enough to convince a signficant fraction of the population that the laws don't apply and it is everyman for himself. In this scenario there is no outside invading army to pull together against there is just disruption and dismay. There is no army standing outside the city waiting to pick-off any refugees headed to the hills either.

Just consider what might have happened on 9/11 if there were a simultaneous blackout, comms disruption and bombing of the major bridges off the island. Takes a bit more planning and personell to pull it off but you'd be in denial if you thought that it couldn't be done. The level of disruption would be massive and the psychological impact even worse. Then throw in a few instigators on the streets with banners and megaphones blaming the govt for it all as you might have during a presidential election anyway and you have the needed resentment and revolutionary tendancies to light the tinderbox. The community may pull together for the first week but it would take more than that time to repair the infrastructure and finish exhuming the casualties during which time things could very well get quite ugly!