If you are going to be a bully and use blackmail to extort whatever you desire from someone weaker than yourself, then you need to be prepared to go the whole hog. When naked force is the main method, you must have a "loyal gang" which is prepared to obey orders to do the dirty work. It's also usually important to have the cops and judges under your control in your own country if you live in a democracy. Does this go some way to explain the current impasse in the USA/Iran war? Negotiations, the old fashioned, historical way of solving political differences between countries, have now been abandoned for threats. "My gang's bigger than your gang and have bigger guns" "I can hurt you more than you can hurt me." And so on. The method is being used against Iran and is not going well. The American administration looks out of its depth and has lost the initiative. Not that the use of naked power hasn't worked successfully in the past. Ghengis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler all had pretty good runs, killing millions along the way. Putin, a devotee, is up against Nato which has negotiated agreements to defend its smaller members. Without deterrents absolute rulers have to threaten a lot more and need more and more resources to kill more people. Sometimes beneficial, strategic changes do occur. China looks to be coming out of this extremely well as a new world power. The longer the Iran/USA conflict goes on then the weaker each side becomes as they deplete their nation's resources. More and more people are killed. Keep your fingers crossed it won't be you or me.