[VarlosZ]

Felix, you gave exactly one example that fit my criteria ("since the exception of nationalism. . ."), and it was a bad one. Iran couldn't do anything in retaliation -- they were already fighting a war and were horribly outclassed militarily -- except, say, give support to terrorists and develop nuclear weapons so it won't happen again.

Stop and think for a moment about what's on the other side of the ledger. Did Pearl Harbor shock us into letting Japan have free reign in the Pacific, or did it ensure that we'd settle for nothing short of unconditional surrender? After 9/11 did we consider even for a split second pulling out of Muslim countries and abandoning Israel as an ally, or did we conquer two Islamic countries -- whose occupations have no end in sight -- in operations which have probably resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Muslims? And how is Israel doing with it's decades-long conflict? Am I correct in my assumption that you think that they'd be safer of they killed a lot more Muslims?

There are countless more examples. You may (or may not) be able to find one or two valid counter-examples but, the vast majority of the time, "teaching them a [violent] lesson" mostly teaches them that it's time to make more bullets.

[ QUOTE ]
As for the rock throwing Iraqis, you shoot a few rock throwers and they stop. This actually happened at a prison in Iraq. The prisoners learned the American guards were not allowed to use deadly force if they threw rocks at the American guards. So they threw rocks. The warden changed the policy where the guards could shoot to kill. The prisoners stopped throwing rocks. A respected threat of violence, causes violence to decrease.

[/ QUOTE ]

First of all (assuming your story is accurate), that's a prison, which is entirely different in this regard from pretty much anyplace else. Second, it may well be that shooting rock-throwers causes rock-throwing to decrease. OTOH, it will probably lead to more severe and longer-lasting violence of other sorts, ultimately.