the last battle that counts [closed]
"It is the last battle that counts" in this context of war means that although all the battles that precede that last one might be important, losing them or losing some of them is far from being as bad as losing the last one, this being so because when you have lost the last battle you have lost the war, whereas when you have won that last battle, no matter what losses you suffered before that, you have won the war.