It's cruel to confine people. Is that not allowed under the Geneva conventions? Again the issue is what was really meant by cruel. It shouldn't be a hard concept to grasp that the definition you gave does not list specific methods or even examples. The definition was intentionally general I'm sure to avoid new methods of truly cruel punishment being used as a loophole, however it is too general. As far as I'm concerned the wording as is could be used to claim behavior typical on a playground is a war crime annd I don't believe that was the intent.

Are you really incapable of seeing an order of magnitude difference between the two categories of coercive interrogation I listed? Do you really believe stress that people will voluntarily submit themselves to should be considered war crimes?

Regards,
Mark