many mistakenly confuse ruthlessness with cruelty.
they are not the same.
cruelty is brutality for the sake of brutality.
ruthlessness is the use of brutality *to get a necessary task completed*... without factoring mercy into consideration.
please see #422 above
Almost. But worst of cruelty perpetrated by groups comes not at the hands of hard faced experts cold and stony killers, but by scared rookies and second-string amateurs.
There are exceptions of course, as when brutalities on one side are repaid in kind [Finnish Civil War; WWII Eastern Front] or when individuals bent on revenge exact a toll found disproportionate by others, if not by themselves.
But the best torturers are not sadists; they enjoy themselves to excess and are then satisfied; the real experts continue long past desired results have been achieved just to advance and perfect the art.