Karl von Clausewitz's great work Vom Kriege, or On War, has been the Bible of the military for 150 years. According to Hugh Nibley, the Book of Mormon reads as if it were written by a diligent student of this work. One of the principal maxims of this work says the following: "the disarming of the enemy--this object of war in the abstract, [is the] final means of attaining the political object."
In the Book of Mormon, Moroni often requires the enemy to lay down their arms and lets them go home. There are no reprisals or anything similar (see Alma 44:6,15,20; 52:37). The test comes when they lay down their arms--then they know your will has dominated over theirs. So Clausewitz says, the "disarming of the enemy--this [is the] object of war." Moroni was satisfied when the enemy laid down their arms. Likewise in the French and Indian Wars, and in the Mexican Wars, and in the last war when the German and Japanese laid down their arms, the war was over. [Hugh Nibley, "Warfare in the Book of Mormon," in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, p. 129] See the commentary on Alma 43:17]