Reply #9: It would be a first

[wtmusic]

as would applying the 8th:

"Also this year, the debate has been intense on the question of whether the Eighth Amendment applies to enemy combatants detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

To suppose it does would be to assume for the first time ever that enemy forces captured during a war are entitled to the same Bill of Rights protections as citizens in the criminal-justice system."

http://www.record-eagle.com/edits/know_your_rights/25eighth.htm

To me, the wording of Geneva is clearer. Is waterboarding unpleasant? What about sleep deprivation or induced hypothermia?

To call them "cruel and unusual" is a higher standard, and we're still left with the problem of whether it applies to foreign nationals outside the US.