The yardstick that matters most, and it’s a terrible one, is how many people are getting killed. For all that The Wrath of Khan tried to invert it, Spock was basically right: more often than not, the needs of the many really do outweigh the needs of the few. War is, as Sisko and Garak both eloquently point out, a messy and bloody business. Sisko can’t save everyone—no one can. But he can do triage, put a tourniquet on the gaping wound, and at least keep the death toll lower, while also giving them a better chance to actually come out of it on the winning side.

He’s done a horrible thing. He knows he’s done a horrible thing, and it’s so horrible that the only person he can talk to about it is himself—and a computer that will gladly erase all trace of what he said. What’s admirable about this episode is not that Sisko did what he did, as it wasn’t admirable in the least, for all that it was probably necessary—it’s that he is suffering for it. Yes, he says he can live with it at the end, but he also repeats those words several times with different inflections. He isn’t saying he can live with it because he actually can live with it, he’s saying it because he’s trying (and failing) to convince himself.