Obviously, Eliot found quotation to be a necessary element of The Wasteland...every other line requires more than a mere glance at the footnotes.  But Eliot's reference to other works is so frequent that it also necessarily detracts from the artistic experience of reading Eliot's own piece as a work of art in itself.  This had to have been intentional, as many of Eliot's own notes are often provided within the footnotes of the work.  Clearly several references were difficult to keep track of in reading, even for the poem's creator.  Eliot  must have foreseen his audience's reaction to the poem as one so laden with outside background information that it became nearly imposible to interpret.  Eliot could have made the work simpler, yet instead he deliberately chose this path for The Wasteland.  Critiquing the Western tradition of recalling ancient history, culture, and story-telling, Eliot overburdened his work with these elements so as to obscure the present, living poem he had written.  

Before the direct reference to war begins around line 140, several of the allusions present a motif of an aged character, powerful, yet weakened by their own fact of self.  One such example is to Sibyl, whom my footnote describes as "a prophetess blessed with eternal life but doomed to perpetual old age".  Like Sybil, the presentation of the other allusions present two images.  The first is a critique of Western literary and cultural tradition in relying on the romanticized past (literary, military, social) and past values to guide the world of the then-current society.  The second is a represenation of humanity as a vulnerable hero.  Humans may indeed have dominion over the earth, Eliot seems to imply, yet they have not yet learned how to forgive themselves for their own mortality.  This is the cause for war.  Humanity consistently attempts to overcome death by reaching great heights of power, only to forever repeat a cycle of war and self-destruction.