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It is interesting and instructive to study the ever-changing nature of warfare, and to compare the tendencies of heroes past to the inclinations of those who direct modern engagements. In mid-February, for instance, the U.S. military reportedly "fired nonlethal smoke rounds to disperse Taliban fighters in Marjah," Afghanistan.

This from The Associated Press on Feb. 16: "NATO and Afghan military officials say killing militants is not the goal of a three-day-old attack to take control of this Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. More important is to win public support."

During World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill won the support of the people -- the British people, that is -- by fighting fire with fire. Churchill's task was to check the aggressions of Adolf Hitler, who rallied his troops in the early days of the blitzkrieg by proclaiming, "What matters in beginning and waging war is not right-eousness but victory. Close your hearts to pity. Proceed brutally."

But Hitler underestimated the brutality with which Churchill would respond to the carpet-bombing of British cities by the German Luftwaffe.

Returning to the modern era, according to Mark Sedwill, NATO's civilian chief in Afghanistan, the attack on Marjah moved slowly "because of essentially the ruthlessness of the opponent we face and the rules that we've set for ourselves," to minimize civilian casualties. "We could have swept through this place in a couple of days, but there would have been a lot of casualties."

Rewind the clock to July 1940, when Churchill decided that the only way to impede German war production and defeat Hitler was to launch "an absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland."

Churchill's plan was executed shortly thereafter. In July and August of 1943, the German city of Hamburg was incinerated. In one night alone, nearly 38 percent of the city's residents were killed.

"In attacking Germany," biographer Paul Johnson writes, "Churchill was never held back by humanitarian motives. The destruction of Dresden on the night of February 13-14, 1945, when between 25,000 and 40,000 men, women, and children were killed, was authorized by him personally."

This month in Afghanistan, there will take place a series of tea parties, but not the kind we have seen in Washington, D.C., and other American cities. According to The New York Times News Service, female Marines who have taken classes in "cultural awareness" will arrive in Afghan villages, "seek permission from the male elder to speak with the women, settle into a compound, hand out school supplies and medicine, drink tea, talk and, ideally, learn about the village, local grievances and the Taliban."

What if the male elder denies the request?

The tea-partying Marines have been instructed to "be sensitive to local custom and to wear head scarves under their helmets," lest they offend the Afghan villagers whose rear ends our military has saved.

The modern Afghan village (pardon the oxymoron) fares much better than did Hamburg, Dresden and the cities of Japan in World War II. The latter, Churchill told the U.S. Congress in May 1943, should be reduced to ashes: "For in ashes they must surely lie before peace comes to the world." Churchill apparently skipped the class on "cultural awareness" and "sensitivity." But he was right.

The prime minister also, Johnson writes, "made clear in his memos that no commander would ever be penalized for an excess of zeal toward the enemy." In modern warfare, excessive zeal is not tolerated. Late last year, three Navy SEALs found themselves facing a court-martial for alleged abuse of a captured terrorist, Ahmed Hashim Abed.

Abed, the mastermind of the infamous Fallujah ambush in which four Americans were killed, mutilated and hung from a bridge, claims that he was punched in the stomach. The moral of the story: terrorists should be killed instead of captured.

On Dec. 31 last year, a federal judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater guards who, according to radio communications, were ambushed in Baghdad's Nisoor Square and returned fire, resulting in the deaths of 17 people. The judge's decision will be appealed by -- get this -- the United States. Joe Biden expressed his "personal regret" over the incident and said the Obama administration was "disappointed by the dismissal."

Churchill would be disappointed by the manner in which we are conducting warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq. But perhaps Great Britain's first sea lord, Adm. John Fisher, said it best in 1902: "Moderation in war is imbecility."

Charles Davenport Jr. (cdavenportjr@hotmail.com) writes a monthly column for the News & Record.