Understand what you are says about risk aversion…but I honestly do not believe that our general officers are applying any type of risk analysis or matrix to these situations. I do believe that the “double standard” is now dogma and an indicator of bad strategy. For example, and I have used this one frequently because the world watched this event on their TVs. When we got al-Zarqari in Iraq, we dropped two 500 LB bombs on the house he occupied. There was collateral because among the multiple bodies was a woman and probably a child. We also know that Special Forces had eyes on target because when they got to Zarqari to confirm his death, he was still alive. This attack is easily justified under the laws of war based on the principle of military necessity.
When we look at Lt Lorance's case, as an example (I say example, because our military leadership has gotten so confidently numb with this dogma, they no longer leak the investigations and we only have these passing lines in short news articles), he was not convicted of violating the laws of war. He was convicted of murder. When two “civilians” are dogging you on motor cycles on a counter insurgency battlefield, calling them civilians and charging you with the Rule of Law crime of murder, avoids the issue that they may have been acting like recon. Acting as recon moves them into the Laws of War category of “Enemy Combatants”. What this legal case does (and many others) is to extend the right of civilians to enemy combatants and denies the rights of combatants (and self-defense) to Soldiers and Marines in combat.