The reason that you can kill an enemy combatant but you cannot
torture him is that the concept of just war is based upon the
concept of self defense. You may kill if someone is trying to kill
you, and it is accepted in battle that one is allowed the utmost
use of force to save your own life and that of your team, but once
the enemy has surrendered, and your life is no longer in danger you
cannot just line them up and shoot them.
It was long ago discovered that barbaric, immoral warfare was a big
loser for everyone who participated and that includes those who
react with barbarity as those who first perpetrated it.
People need to study some moral philosophy. "Preventive war" and
"preventive torture" are not new ideas, as illustrated above.
Civilized cultures ended the practices for very good reasons,
mainly because people realized that some basic rules were necessary
for human beings to remain civilized, no matter what the supposed
threat.
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