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Taking it from a more political point of view rather than neurological, Shakespeare did a political play on this subject which was summarily all about blow-back or stone cold revenge — "Titus Andronicus." (A movie by Julie Taymor of the play "Titus" is quite powerful)

In politics and war The dirtiest fighter makes the rules and now that the United States tortures people, I suspect we will be "one-upped" in the next war.

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Indeed, once you resort to torture or other "questionable" means, you can't accuse or deny enemies from using them too; this sets new standards. The argument is generally "but they already do it", and in my opinion it fails to recognize 1) the large scale validation for every belligerent, 2) the race to "no-rule" warfare, as limits are one-upped once (de facto) accepted. So it's not because _some_ belligerents are willing to use banned means that everybody should start using them too.

Yes, many of my worries about what my government get up to are based on the fact that they lose all moral standing when others do the same, see Russia bombing Syria for a recent example.

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