Quote Originally Posted by Hypnos View Post
Plenty of reasons. The big one is propaganda. Ideally, you want people to surrender as often as possible and you want them to open up to you once in custody. Knowing that they'll get good conditions and not torture followed by execution is a great incentive for enemy troops to surrender rather than making a last stand.

Even if this particular foe isn't going to work on that precept, you can't afford to throw it away because it's handing the enemy (and any enemy in the near future) a propaganda dream to work with. Especially when we're constantly claiming to be the civilised, modern side of the conflict.
I see. But what happens when we capture someone with no allegiance to the opposing army, an insurgent, or "terrorist" if you will? I think the Geneva only protects army personnel not some religious nut that was promised virgins in the afterlife. I hope we follow Geneva only for propaganda and then turn around and do whatever we want.