Controversy
The US military states the term is used in regards to unintentional damage, however, at least one source claims that the term "collateral damage" originated as a euphemism during the Vietnam War and can refer to friendly fire, or the killing of non-combatants and the destruction of their property.
Also during the 1991 Gulf War, the allied forces used the phrase 'collateral damage' to describe the killing of civilians in attacks on military targets. According to Scottish linguist Deborah Cameron, "the classic Orwellian argument for finding this usage objectionable would be that
- it is jargon, and to the extent that people cannot decode it, it conceals what is actually going on;
- it is a euphemism; abstract, agentless and affectless, so that even if people succeed in associating it with a real act or event they will be insulated from any feeling of repulsion and moral outrage"
Read more about this topic: Collateral Damage
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