Headscratchers / Consider Phlebas

• In the epilogue, it is mentioned that Balveda went into suspended animation with instructions not to rouse her until the hawks could prove mathematically that more people would have died from Idiran oppression in a world where the Culture didn’t provoke the war than who died in the war in fact. Thing is, shouldn’t it always be the case that the war had fewer casualties than the alternative, considering that they could potentially wait thousands or even millions of years for there to be enough human flourishing to offset the death toll? And in that case, wouldn’t this be fatal for Balveda’s argument, since it would imply the Culture is always justified in going to war whatever the reason, something we know is not true?