Three United States Navy Seals await courts marshal. What crime are they accused of? They are accused of giving giving a fat lip to an al Qaeda murderer of Americans. The al Qaeda murderer in question was the mastermind of the murder, mutilation, burning and hanging of Americans from a bridge in Fallujah.

Those are Americans hanging from that bridge. The guy who made it happen allegedly received a knuckle sandwich from a special operations troop. The Seals who captured this animal are at risk of punishment and the ending of their military careers because one of them, allegedly, popped him in the mouth.

You know, I don’t think that there was a year in school between 4th and 12th grade that I didn’t give or receive a fat lip or a black eye without it being a big deal, but apparently in the United States Army Special Operations Command, giving a terrorist killer a punch in the kisser is a career ending offense. When I was a kid, Captain Kirk could give a pop in the jaw to even a woman villain and it was okay.

My how times have changed. A generation ago a prime time TV hero could slug a chick for the simple expedient of rendering her unconsious and nary an eye was bat. Today if elite warriors, during a time of war, punch an illegal combatant and brutal killer they are in trouble with the man.

In the Wall Street Journal today, Warren Kozak gives a little perspective.

You don’t have to dig too deep to understand that war brings out behavior in people that they would never demonstrate in normal life. In Paul Fussell’s moving memoir, “The Boys’ Crusade,” the former infantryman relates a story about the liberation of Dachau. There were about 120 SS guards who had been captured by the Americans. Even though the Germans were being held at gunpoint, they still had the arrogance—or epic stupidity—to continue to heap verbal abuse and threats on the inmates. Their American guards, thoroughly disgusted by what they had already witnessed in the camp, had seen enough and opened fire on the SS. Some of the remaining SS guards were handed over to the inmates who tore them limb from limb. Another war crime? No doubt. Justified? It depends on your point of view. But before you weigh in, realize that you didn’t walk through the camp. You didn’t smell it. You didn’t witness the obscene horror of the Nazis.

Rules of war are important. They are something to strive for as they separate us from our distant ancestors. But when only one side follows these rules, they no longer elevate us. They create a very unlevel field and more than a little frustration. It is equally bizarre for any of us to judge someone’s behavior in war by the rules we follow in our very peaceful universe. We sit in homes that are air-conditioned in the summer and warmed in the winter. We have more than enough food in our bellies and we get enough sleep. The stress in our lives won’t ever match the stress of battle. Can we honestly begin to decide if a soldier acted in compliance with rules that work perfectly well on Main Street but not, say, in Malmedy or Fallujah?

In his book, Mr. Fussell probably sums up the feelings of many soldiers when he quotes a British captain, John Tonkin, who experienced a great deal of the war. “I have always felt,” Capt. Tonkin said, “that the Geneva Convention is a dangerous piece of stupidity, because it leads people to believe that war can be civilized. It can’t.”

General William Tecumseh Sherman had a similar sentiment. He said, “War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.” He said “Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster. Sherman made the rebels howl, received surrender and is now a hero.

These lessons are lost on the leaders our increasingly feminized society. We are dominated now by people who have no understanding of the stakes or the nature of war. The result will be humiliation and disaster.

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