"Because if you go back, you will tell them of the Skrull and our intentions, our purpose," Dorrek points out. "They will know of our abilities, and thus will seek us. When we come to your world, it will be war, not subversion."

They are shapeshifters, Gar. And as warlike as the people Dorrek has been raised among are, they are shapeshifters.

"There is more than one way to come into power among a populous who is not prepared for our kind. And while the Skrull have not been the most patient over time, I am working on them. Your world will come into my hands, not by war if I can avoid it, but by means of subterfuge, lies, and distractions. We can look and sound like anyone, Gar. What need of I for war when I can merely replace your leaders? When I can manipulate things such that when the Skrull come to your world, it willingly bows a knee to us, because it is given over by those who rule? Those who are now my people?"

Millions, hundreds of millions, of lives could be lost through actual war. And few of them would be Skrull in Dorrek's opinion. But to make them a vassal world of the Skrull with minimal bloodshed is another beast entirely.