well murder is pretty much wrong in every country but we still have state sponsored assassinations and those seem to be ok.

Here's an analogy; If a soldier goes to war and kills an enemy soldier then the enemy soldier is considered as killed in action, and not considered as murdered. The killing soldier has the protection of the army and of his government. Any accusations about the death of the enemy soldier should not be addressed to the soldier that did the killing.
If the same soldier goes to war and starts to kill civilians then this would be considered murder and the soldier should be held responsible.

So basically it depends on who you are attacking and who's backing you up.

yes but since its government/state sponsored it seems in most cases it would be legal...obviously ethical is an entirely different matter.

but since in most cases you wouldnt see the physical damage if any of your actions i dont think most people with the skills would mind that much.

but you wouldnt help if the government said go attack N Korea, Iran, China, etc?

its also unrealistic to compare "go steal that from walmart" and "go steal that from a bad guy/insert countryX here"

It might by not be unexpected, but from an ethical viewpoint this could be a small step down a slippery slope.

"look...it's right there in the logs. Lets get that IP address off line...."

IMO, the only truely ethical solution to these kinds of attacks is to get your defenses and security to a level where the attacks have no impact. Once your defenses are tight enough that there is no impact then the attackers might just get bored and go home (only in a perfect world I know....).

Two wrongs don't make a right

I think ethics are largely in the eyes of the beholder. I know your ethics differ from mine. Of course as a prior service person i also know I'd do anything to keep the country headed on course. Is State Sponsored hacking ethical? Who knows, but it's legal if thats your job, and therefore your  not going to get in trouble for it. Personally I like the concept, I've been waiting for my recruitment call... It just hasnt come yet . Too much red tape anyway!

One comment though made me consider the rant from good will hunting. There would be the indirect results from your actions. I mean indirect in the sense you'd never see them but this is just priceless and kind of applicable.I really wish I could come up with something like this.

Why shouldn't I work for the NSA? That's a tough one. But I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at the NSA, and somebody puts a code on my desk, somethin' no one else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, cus' I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East and once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels are hiding... Fifteen hundred people that I never met, never had no problem with get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, Send in the marines to secure the area" cus' they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, cus' they were off pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie over there takin' shrapnel in the ass. He comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, cus' he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so that we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the little skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. They're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, of course, maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work. He can't afford to drive, so he's walking to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks because the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' cus' every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected President."

Gas is now 4.25 for the cheap watery crap in my area.... it is painful.  Thank goodness for the free pub transit for Feds.  I bus it most the way to work, which saves me a ton in gas and parking.