Bush's Waterboarding Admission Prompts Calls For Criminal Probe

I've been trying to understand your point, the distinction you're trying to make.

Here's the distinction that I see:

The atrocities that you're talking about, what US troops have done to German soldiers, Japanese soldiers, to Vietnamese soldiers, etc., were in the settings of 'on the battlefield'.  War is chaotic, it's h3ll, and it's why it should always be a last resort, not as a 'preemptive' measure, but that's a separate discussion for another time.  

Soldiers on the battlefield are given more leeway because of the chaos of the battle, in the moment.  

Where the line of 'accountability' is drawn is higher up (officers, Commander-in-Chief) and farther away from ongoing battle, both in geographical distance and in time.  

If a combatant is in custody, the combatant is not causing any imminent danger to troops.  There's no battle ongoing where a US soldier is reacting and trying to save his own life.  With taking custody of a combatant comes special responsibilities.  Legal responsibilities, both in US law and international law.  

What's particularly important to remember is that the t0rture and abuse committed by agents of our government was done on DETAINEES.  No due process, not on battlefields (just being in Afghanistan doesn't make a detainee a "combatant", as was the Bush administration's definition of "enemy combatant"), these people were kidnapped and transported to secret dungeons, kept away from US government oversight and T0RTURED.  In our names.  

The hypocrisy that is Barack Obama, here. 
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