Actually you've got it exactly wrong. The term 'enemy combatant' was an invented categorization of antagonist during the GW Bush administration to skirt the pr

Actually you've got it exactly wrong. The term 'enemy combatant' was an invented categorization of antagonist during the GW Bush administration to skirt the protections offered by the United States Constitution and the formal rules regarding Prisoners of War, which are of course part of the Geneva Convention to which the US is a signatory. The rules are pretty specific, and preclude the sort of treatment we've afforded 'enemy combatants.' https://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/protected-persons/prisoners-war/overview-detainees-protected-persons.htm https://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/protected-persons/priso... The reason we call them 'enemy combatants' is so that we can torture them, detain indefinitely contrary to the Constitution of the United States, and hold show trials where we prosecute them for fighting against the US in wars that are certainly illegal from an international standpoint.