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Collateral damage is a U.S. Military term for unintended or incidental damage during a military operation. The term started as a euphemism during the Vietnam War, and can refer to friendly fire or the destruction of civilians and their property.[1] The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ...
A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces, or in the case of doublespeak to make it less troublesome for the speaker. ...
Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...
For other uses, see Friendly Fire (disambiguation). ...
Definitions
Collateral damage is a military euphemism that was made popular during the Vietnam War (Army Technology). The euphemism has now been in use so long that it is an accepted term within military forces, meaning "unintentional damage or incidental damage affecting facilities, equipment or personnel, occurring as a result of military actions directed against targeted enemy forces or facilities. Such damage can occur to friendly, neutral, and even enemy forces." (USAF Intelligence Targeting Guide). A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces, or in the case of doublespeak to make it less troublesome for the speaker. ...
Etymologically, the expression "collateral damage" probably was originally used as military doublespeak rather than a euphemism, as the adjective "collateral" doesn't seem to have been used as a synonym for "unintentional" or "accidental" earlier. "Collateral" comes from medieval Latin collateralis, from col- ‘together with’ + lateralis (from latus, later- ‘side’ ) and is otherwise mainly used as a synonym for "parallel" or "additional" in certain expressions ("collateral veins" run parallel to each other and "collateral security" means additional security to the main obligation in a contract). However, "collateral" may also sometimes mean "additional but subordinate," i.e. "secondary" ("collateral meanings of a word"), and that specific meaning of a rather obscure word in the English language seems to have been picked up and broadened by the military in the expression "collateral damage." Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ...
Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. ...
In grammar, an adjective is a part of speech that modifies a noun or a pronoun, usually by describing it or making its meaning more specific. ...
Look up Synonym in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Medieval Latin refers to the Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. ...
Others, partucularly pacifist academics, once claimed that collateral damage was a military euphemism for the destruction left after a nuclear attack. This, however, was an extreme overstatement. By military definition, collateral damage has always meant unintentional damage resulting from an attack on the original target. Say, for example, that a munitions factory is bombed. The ensuing fire and explosions damage nearby buildings, etc, that were not targeted. The unintended destruction would be collateral damage. The risk of collateral damage is one reason the Geneva Conventions expressly forbid co-locating schools, hospitals, etc with legitimate military targets.
Similarly, Timothy McVeigh's statements about his victims being collateral damage underscore his apparent lack of knowledge or a bizarre (if not callous) claim that he did not intend to harm anyone. Anyone planning to destroy an occupied building would surely realize that his actions would cause terrible loss of life and injuries.
Examples - On July 30, 2006 Israel bombed a house in Qana sheltering women and children in what it claimed was an attack on a Hezbollah rocket launch site[2]. No militants were injured.
The term "collateral damage" came into the public consciousness during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 from televised military briefings, and was used to describe civilian victims of the bombing of Iraq. May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
On May 7 1999 in Operation Allied Force, NATO bombs hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese journalists and outraging Chinese public opinion. ...
Belgrade (Serbian: Београд or Beograd ) is the capital and the largest city of Serbia. ...
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a guidance tail kit that converts existing unguided free-fall bombs into accurate, adverse weather smart munitions. ...
The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ...
Official language Serbian written in Cyrillic alphabet1 Capital Belgrade2 President3 Svetozar Marović Area - Total - % water Ranked 105th 102,350 km² 0. ...
July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ...
For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...
Qana Qana is a village located southeast of Tyre, Lebanon. ...
See also: 2003 invasion of Iraq and Gulf War (disambiguation) C Company, 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment, 1st UK Armoured Division The Persian Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations led by the United States. ...
The phrase was also quoted after the April 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK by Timothy McVeigh. According to McVeigh, the 168 people that died on in the Murrah building were "collateral damage". McVeigh carried out the bombing in retaliation for the 1993 FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. McVeigh made a statement to the effect that he had learned the term while serving in the military during the Gulf War. Alfred P. Murrah building during demolition Aerial view of Alfred P. Murrah building after bombing The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States Federal Government complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. ...
Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American terrorist convicted of eleven federal offenses and ultimately executed as a result of his role in the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing. ...
The Branch Davidians are a religious group originating from a schism in 1955 from the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, themselves former members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church who were excommunicated during the 1930s. ...
Other uses The term collateral damage has also been borrowed by the computing community to refer to legitimate users who are denied service when administrators take blanket preventative measures against some individuals who are abusing systems. For example, Realtime Blackhole Lists used to combat email spam generally block whole IP ranges rather than individual IPs associated with spam, and can cause legitimate users within those IP ranges to lose the ability to send email to some domains. A DNSBL is a means by which an Internet site may publish a list of IP addresses that some people may want to avoid and in a format which can be easily queried by computer programs on the Internet. ...
A typical spam advertisement Spam by e-mail is one type of spamming that involves sending identical or nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients. ...
Different connotations can be applied. There is both the military interpretation favoured by the administrators doing the blocking (as a euphemism which sounds better than acknowledging real people are being affected) and the cynical interpretation that administrators are simply trying to gloss over the problems inherent in combatting abuse in this way.[citation needed]
See also Development of the Geneva Conventions from 1864 to 1949. ...
Militarism or militarist ideology is the doctrinal view of a society as being best served (or more efficient) when it is governed or guided by concepts embodied in the culture, doctrine, system, or people of the military. ...
Realpolitik (German: real (realistic, practical or actual) and Politik (politics)) is a term used to describe politics based on strictly practical rather than idealistic notions, and practiced without any sentimental illusions. // The term was coined by Ludwig August von Rochau, a German writer and politician in the 19th century, following...
Total war is an unqualified, all-out war conducted without scruple or limitation. ...
The Philosophy of war examines war beyond the typical questions of weaponry and strategy, inquiring into the meaning and etiology of war, what war means for humanity and human nature as well as the ethics of war. ...
In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ...
References - ^ Air Force Law Review, Wntr, 2005 by Jefferson D. Reynolds
- ^ HRW
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