So many people seem eager to rush to sell their souls, without first checking to see if the Devil’s willing to fulfill his end of the bargain.
In cases like this I assume the point is to prove one’s willingness to be make the hard choice, not to be effective (possibly to the extent of being ineffective on purpose). This can be just proving to oneself, out of fear of being the kind of person who’s not able to make the hard choice — if I’m not in favor of torturing the terrorist, that might be because I’m squeamish (= weak, or limited in what I can think (= unsafe)), so I’d better favor doing it without thought of whether it’s a good idea.
In cases like this I assume the point is to prove one’s willingness to be make the hard choice, not to be effective (possibly to the extent of being ineffective on purpose). This can be just proving to oneself, out of fear of being the kind of person who’s not able to make the hard choice — if I’m not in favor of torturing the terrorist, that might be because I’m squeamish (= weak, or limited in what I can think (= unsafe)), so I’d better favor doing it without thought of whether it’s a good idea.