"society that tends to accept tit-for-tat reprisals"

"In some cases, people may simply have been seeking revenge against the ruthless Taliban, in a [Pakistani] society that tends to accept tit-for-tat reprisals, local politicians said." I just love it when Western media strive to draw imaginary civilizational distinctions between the East and West. Look at this comical sentence in the New York Times. Society that tends to accept tit-for-tat reprisals? As opposed to Western societies that don't accept them? The US is roaming the world rabidly bombing and killing, daily and that is not considered an American appetite for tit-for-tat reprisals? Hell, the US is eager for 20 tit for tat reprisals, or sometimes tit for no tat reprisals. Please, o New York Times. You are not amusing when you feign a sense of moral and civilizational superiority.