But it's not okay to put a rag over his face and pour water on him, because THAT is "cruel" and "immoral?"
WAR is cruel and immoral. It's also a fact of life among fallen humanity.
There's no gentle way to defeat your enemy.
At one point, a JAG lawyer had to approve a lot of that stuff. Not sure what the current ROEs are.
If I was a platoon leader, and I knew a high-ranking terrorist was in a house, I might risk my men to capture him alive, if I thought we could get information from him.
If he has no information value, what is my incentive in risking my men to take him alive? Rather than just calling in an airstrike on the location?