It is a good thing war is so terrible,” Confederate commander Robert E. Lee once famously wrote, “lest we grow too fond of it.”

War occasionally brings out the very best in humanity, and always the very worst. No one knows this paradoxic truth more intimately than a United States Marine.

The battlefield is a crucible of lawlessness — a pit of anarchy, death, destruction and fire. And yet a Marine is regarded by many as an icon of valor, honor and restraint — simultaneously a killing machine and a uniformed angel of mercy and protection, from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.

It’s not the only paradox associated with the Marines these days. Just two months ago, three women joined a Marine infantry unit, becoming the first female front-line Marines in the corps’ 182-year history. There have been female Marines since World War I, but until now their service has been limited to support roles. The new infantry Marines graduated from the School of Infantry at Camp LeJeune, S.C., as part of the service’s gender integration research, Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Philip Kulczewski said in an interview with the Marine Times magazine.

It should have been a proud achievement for the USMC; instead, it has been clouded by scandal. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service — NCIS — is investigating the online posting of what could be hundreds of explicit photos of current and former female Marines.

The nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting found that since Jan. 30 more than two dozen women, including active duty and enlisted service members, had been identified by their rank, full name and military duty station in photographs posted and linked to a social media page that’s exclusive to current and inactive Marines.

The closed Facebook group called “Marines United” contained a link to a Google Drive folder where the photos were being stored, according to a U.S. defense official. Members on the site solicited others to submit photos of women without their knowledge. The cloud storage folder has been removed at the request of the military, the official said.

We agree wholeheartedly when Sergeant Major Ronald L. Green, the highest ranking enlisted Marine, says: “No person should be treated this way. It is inconsistent with our core values, and it impedes our ability to perform our mission.”

It’s probably not coincidence that these photos surfaced just as Defense Secretary Ash Carter was opening all phases of Marine service to qualified women as well as men. Call it dirty play, akin to the tactics and taunting Jackie Robinson encountered when he broke the color barrier of Major League Baseball 70 years ago.

The good ol’ boys were determined to discourage and discredit the newcomers. They accomplished the exact opposite.

There is a major difference between baseball, which is a game, and war, which is not a game. War has few rules, no umpires and permanent casualties. There’s no great arbitrator who determines what is an isn’t fair about combat because it is all unfair — and merciless.

We would like to see two developments as a result of this latest Marine scandal.

First, keep the politicians away. Let the Marine Corps handle its own affairs. The corps is an honor-bound brotherhood and sisterhood that must live — or die — according to its slogan, “Semper Fidelis”: “Forever Faithful”.

Second, The Defense Department should keep in mind that it’s gender integration action is still a matter of research. Translation: They are still gathering and analyzing data and should not have made any conclusions yet about the outcome of their research. Maybe front-line gender integration will work. Maybe it won’t. Are we prepared to accept a statistically valid conclusion even if it doesn’t fit a politically correct or progressive agenda?

Ideally — hopefully — we’ll never have another war, never get to measure and compare the casualties of a gender-integrated front line.