A war waged with external enemies is, in itself, a silent one waged with one’s own economy, which through specific management (as little bureaucratized as possible) and marketing (propaganda of course) must be skilfully concealed. Wars sustained through expropriations and draconian taxation of profits, through indebtedness and inflation, through the quasi-complete “martialization” of the economic and social climate produce terrible injuries, in which Pyrrhic victories become practically indistinguishable from outright defeats. The history of civilization, of capitalism, illustrates what economic theory stubbornly repeats despite its internal struggles: the market is a superior means of achieving individual or collective goals (unfortunately, regardless of their morality). But if the inefficiency of the state in peacetime seems a fatality, in wartime it can be fatal, moving nations, if we are the recall the famous ancient Sparta urge, from “under” their shield “on” it.