Greetings!
"Total War" is a fallacy? Uh, I don't think so.
The Roman Empire did "Total War" very well. And, well, not to be outdone, the Mongol Empire also demonstrated whole new lessons to what "Total War" really meant. In ancient China, the different Chinese Dynasties and empires also routinely employed principles of Total War very effectively, against a variety of opponents.
Then, of course, American development of "Total War" against the South during the Civil War, and subsequently against the Native American tribes across the North American continent. America's prosecution of "Total War" during World War II against Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire was absolutely decisive. Such implementation of Total War principles utterly broke the Nazis and the Japanese to their knees, and laid the foundations for America's rise as a global superpower.
I would say "Total War" throughout history has been entirely established as the ultimately most effective way to engage in warfare, regardless of what Clausewitz thought or wrote about the subject.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK