The endless violence loop

Polish journalist and writer Ryszard Kapuściński quotes Bolesław Miciński in his book "The Polish Bush " (Busz po polsku)- War does not only deform the soul of the invaders, it also deforms those of the people invaded as their souls get poisoned with hate. -

Anyone that has studied a bit of system's theory should know that in any system with a positive feedback loop as the feedback does not compensate the input (by subtracting to the input) the system becomes unstable. In a situation of war we could translate the previous into; retaliation to an aggression will only bring more aggressions and thus more pain. This basic rule of stability may had not been very clear even to the authors of some sacred books when they wrote things like "an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth".

Trying to figure out who was the one who threw the stone that started the conflict is just the lame excuse of those avoiding to solve the conflict. By the time the hearts are full of hate the reason is not used any more and the positive feedback loop leads to using even bigger stones to retaliate. It may be thought that at this stage the one with the biggest stone will win, but I am afraid that it is not true. Once a system becomes unstable it may be so for ever, even in the absence of an input.

So in the case of an aggression I guess that you should defend yourself, but just up to the point that it is not perceived as a further aggression, because even though you may have the biggest stone, throwing it will prove not to be on your benefit.