War... is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the

Ludwig von Mises, the great defender of liberty and clear-eyed critic of tyranny, once declared: “War... is harmful, not only to the conquered but to the conqueror.” In this statement, he pierced through the illusions of victory and revealed a truth that rulers and peoples too often forget. For though the defeated lie in ruins, the victors, too, are scarred — burdened with the cost of conquest, corrupted by power, and weighed down by the hatred their triumph sows. War offers no true winner, only mutual ruin in different forms.

The conquered suffer visibly: their lands burned, their people enslaved or displaced, their culture silenced beneath the boots of invaders. But the conqueror, though outwardly triumphant, bears hidden wounds. His treasury is drained to maintain armies and occupations. His soldiers are hardened, broken, or lost to the grave. His nation inherits resentful subjects who rebel in spirit, if not in arms. In this way, the victory of the conqueror becomes a slow and bitter poison, eroding the strength it sought to display.

History testifies to this with countless examples. Consider the vast empire of Rome. Rome conquered much of the known world, and yet each new territory demanded garrisons, roads, taxes, and endless blood to maintain control. In time, the empire was stretched thin, weakened by the very lands it had taken. The conquered groaned under Rome’s rule, but Rome itself withered beneath the burden of its conquests. Thus Mises’ truth was proven: the victor was harmed as surely as the vanquished.

Or look to the Napoleonic Wars. France, under Napoleon, conquered much of Europe. Yet each victory brought new enemies, new expenses, new sacrifices of French sons. The triumphs that once seemed glorious ended in retreat, ruin, and the downfall of the emperor himself. The lands Napoleon conquered bore scars, but France, the conqueror, was left exhausted, invaded, and diminished. Conquest had given the illusion of greatness, but its cost devoured the conqueror’s strength.

Even in modern times, the lesson holds. After the Second World War, victorious nations inherited the destruction of Europe and Asia. America and the Soviet Union, though conquerors in their own right, were dragged into decades of tension, debt, and division.