Collateral damage: A phrase designed to mask bloody reality of war

IN his defence of the recent Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, Professor Michael Wald is keen to make a distinction between murder and what he refers to as “collateral damage”, something, he assures us, that “regrettably happens in any war” (Irish Examiner letters, August 29).

‘Collateral damage’ is, of course, a Pentagon euphemism coined during the Vietnam war to justify the trail of death left in the wake of B52 bombers. This dangerous euphemism saw service again during the two US-led invasions of Iraq and is now proffered as justification for the carnage inflicted from the air on the people of Lebanon.

A literal examination of this phrase is instructive. ‘Collateral’ means ‘of a secondary nature’ or ‘subordinate’.