All wars are a jumble of paradoxes and lies. Going back a little further in time, we can take as an example the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), which pitted the two great Hellenic powers against each other: Athens, at the head of the Delian League, and Sparta, at the head of the Peloponnesian League. League. The Spartan motto was “freedom for the Greeks”, in reference to the flourishing Athenian imperialism. However, the liberating Sparta subjected its territories to a fierce dictatorship. Athens claimed to fight to spread democracy and trade, but in its colonies it allowed neither democracy nor free trade.
Of course, no war lacks a third party who profits from the conflict. Then there was Persia, an old enemy of Athens, who cooperated with Sparta, eventually allied with it and obtained interesting benefits after the Spartan victory. Thucydides (an Athenian historian and general involved in the conflict) says with unusual sincerity that the rapid expansion of the Athenian empire frightened the Spartans and pushed them to fight.
