In the last reading we did in The Sun Also Rises, we see basically everybody attack Robert Cohn, either verbally, or mentally (in Jake's case). Throughout the book, Jake has been the poster child for masculinity; he criticizes Cohn for just sitting there when Frances is yelling at him, and is always angry when Cohn does something silly or feminine. But in this section, Cohn is ready to fight for his "lady love"! He's pumped; he wants to hit Mike, let's go, man! But Jake criticizes him yet again.
I think some of this has to do with the fact that deep down (or maybe nearer to the surface than he'd like to admit), Jake really dislikes Cohn. But the other reason that Jake criticizes Cohn for this chivalrous behavior towards Brett is that Brett is the last person who would expect chivalry. She is the epitome of the 1920s independent woman. She wears a dude's hat. She drinks and stays out with Counts until all hours of the morning. She "started all that." Brett doesn't like Cohn; she's mean to him just like the others, and doesn't need to be fought for by him. She needs absolutely no one to stand up for her, and that is what Cohn is trying to do.
The whole fact that Cohn is ready to fight, and that Brett so does not want him to, is just so absurd in this context. The entire situation is ridiculous, and Jake sees this. He watches Cohn playing the knight on the white horse, and he thinks, "Really dude? Of all the girls in the entire world, you picked Brett to stand up for." It's just so comical (in a sort of sad way) to Jake, and that is why he criticizes Cohn for something that we would normally think he would appreciate.
Traditional masculine values and chivalrous behavior are all well and good, just not when Brett is concerned.
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And since Brett is the embodiment of modernity in so many ways in this novel (the "New Woman" everyone was writing about in the 1920s), Cohn's chivalrous code can be seen as obsolete in the postwar world more generally, not just around Brett. It's not a stretch to look at this in the context of _SAR_ as a "war novel"--one that depicts the cultural aftermath of war rather than the war itself (although, as you note, we do get plenty of "battles"--of the drunken, interpersonal, largely verbal variety). The excerpt from Hochschild I handed out on Monday supports this idea: the war was such a massive disaster largeley because it was fought by leaders who operated under an obolete code of military conduct (the cavalry(!) would be vital, etc.)--think of Septimus volunteering to "defend" Shakespeare and Miss Isabel Pole. One reason Cohn isn't "one of us" is because he still operates under this obsolete code, where a "lady of title" (and Brett's "Ladyship" is heavily ironic) must be stood up for. But Jake isn't comfortable as a "modern," either, it seems to me--he still has his own "code," and he's uneasy about the modern world (which is why, I think, he's so into Romero and Montoya and the traditional--and somewhat chivalrous--culture they represent).
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