"Understanding their plight is one thing, agreeing to send tribute regularly to your aggressor is quite another -- especially knowing they will destroy other cities all the while."

That is, after all, what Rigarda had been doing. Keeping Taravast safe by arming the undead legions so they might continue to decimate other cities.

"That is what Macaluso may well now do, after all. He may see no other way to stop his city being destroyed. Yet equally, had Rigarda not lived, he may not have known what methods he could employ to save Taravast. The city had no standing force, it may have been destroyed. An unknown potential or a known one. There may be another way, but Taravast is not Stormwind. We do not know enough to guess the right path. Were this Stormwind we were speaking of, you would known all your options. Evacuation to Ironforge. Assistance from the Grand Alliance, seeking reinforcements from the Kirin Tor. You cannot make the decisions here for another, you can only use your best judgment."

Even if that judgement is often difficult to make.