If it ever comes down to that, it will come down to a contest of wills.
As long as the people targeted are under attack and the people doing the attacking don't suffer any serious losses on the field of battle and are safe from reprisal in their own homelands, then there is no cost to continuing to keep using overwhelming force to keep slapping the people around.
If that dynamic ever changes, then it will get to be a true contest of wills.
I'm in favor of the dynamic changing. I just don't want to be the one to initiate the change.