From what I can remember (someone may need to correct me, it's been a while) we had a few alliances on the ~ side who were interested in discussing a way out of the war. By no means would this have won the war for us, but we hoped for a chain reaction with enough alliances dropping out to balance the field a bit. When TPF and the others surrendered after the incident, we pretty much lost this bargaining chip and accepted that a stalemate was no longer an option.
I shudder to think what GOD would look like today if I hadn't gotten fed up with politics and quit government. So there we go, the UjW loss saved you from having to put up with my erratic behaviour.
I'm unsure if they'd have been swayed into action. I do know from my own experience that it affected how I viewed the War of the Coalition. I knew the CB was !@#$%^&*, but I also held a massive grudge against Polar and was happy to see them stomped. My opinion of Polar has since changed, though.
#unjustmassacre was incredible fun when it wasn't in shambles. I haven't seen/spoken to many people from there since not long after the war.