No, used literally "war" (without modifiers like "civil", etc.) refers to a thing waged between countries. War on concepts are a metaphor, not a literal description, that puts the—actual or for-propaganda-purposes—goal of a set of policies front and center rather than actual policies ((which may or may not be or include literal wars on countries; consider the range from the "War on Poverty" through the "War on Drugs" to the "Global War on Terror".)
Comments
No, used literally "war" (without modifiers like "civil", etc.) refers to a thing waged between countries. War on concepts are a metaphor, not a literal description, that puts the—actual or for-propaganda-purposes—goal of a set of policies front and center rather than actual policies ((which may or may not be or include literal wars on countries; consider the range from the "War on Poverty" through the "War on Drugs" to the "Global War on Terror".)
I don't disagree with any of that but I don't think it's relevant to the on vs. in hair-splitting either.