If it's going to be a policy, it should be a strict policy. This is the kind of thing where a "there's no room for interpretation" stance is probably appropriate - this is tricky, tricky territory, and even though a game simulating a real war will always have real entities as the enemy, I can respect a policy that is implemented to the letter in order to avoid the sort of really horrible games that could enter the App Store without it.

I'd prefer Apple to be entirely open and then only remove apps once flagged and reviewed, but if they're going to be the way they are, I prefer them to be consistent.