It used to be that wars were fought for territory and booty, and whoever got the most territory and booty won. Since wars were planned by kings and other bigshots (who generally claimed that God put them in power), the dead and wounds did not count.
Now we have pretty much outlawed war for either territory or booty (it seems that Israel thinks it, alone among all others is an exception) and no one really wins/ Plus, the leader, even a dictator, has to sort of listen to the people he rules, since in the old days, the soldiers were considered the personal property of the ruler, and even considered themselves to be such.
Israel kills a LOT more Palestinians than Palestinians kill Israelis, but those who die and are wounded are clearly losers. So are the people who the money the war would have been spent on or at least those whose taxes the money was are losers.
The American people are losing $20 billion as month in Iraq. That is 20 thousand million. We could have 20,000 millionaires a day for the same price. Even more, if we taxed the winners, or paid them off over 20 years as lotteries do.