Without Tom Donovan the Ransom Stoddards of the world will die. Tom Donovan is the rough much needed man, just like V in the film. Without the rough to clear the way, civilization wanes and dies.
And note how V and Stoddard worked.
But without the Ransom Stoddards, the Tom Donovans of the world would do nothing. Tom Donovan was Liberty’s match in every way, but he had lived in the region for years without standing up to him, just occasionally making hostile noises at him. He did it for Rans Stoddard and his quixotic belief in the magic of law, and despite the fact that by not allowing Liberty to kill Rans, he had lost the girl. And he did it because he admired Rans’ courage.
Would Tom Donovan have fought Daesh, had he believed that afterwards French “statesmen” (Applegate in our analogy) would sit down and negotiate a piece with the terrorists?