It gets Lindsey Graham in front of the cameras and keeps the 'Muslim" hate up at a fever pitch. It was a George Bush invention. Do you expect it to make any sense?
I think it's because we could send them to Guantanamo and waterboard them.. .then make them so damned depressed .. that they end up starving themselves to death... I think that may be the wingnut reason .. as I cannot think of even one other one .. ..
DesertDrifter -- dubya and Halliburton-boy and Rummy and Asscrack and their dutiful 'legal' scribes (like Yoo and Bybee) waved a magic wand and solved that by coming up with/inventing "unlawful enemy combatants" they proclaimed to thus not be entitled to Geneva Convention/similar/related treaties/legal requirements/obligations/protections (or any Constitutional ones either)
all the better for Halliburton-boy's cherished sessions in his undisclosed location masturbating while watching videos of those naughtily "unlawful" enemy combatants being tortured