Collateral damage

For other uses, see Collateral damage (disambiguation).

Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome.^[1] The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.

Etymology

The word "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".^[2]

The USAF Intelligence Targeting Guide defines the term "[the] 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".^[1] Another United States Department of Defense document uses "Unintentional or incidental injury or damage to persons or objects that would not be lawful military targets in the circumstances ruling at the time. Such damage is not unlawful so long as it is not excessive in light of the overall military advantage anticipated from the attack."^[3]

Intent is the key element in understanding the military definition as it relates to target selection and prosecution. Collateral damage is damage aside from that which was intended. Since the dawn of precision guided munitions, military "targeteers" and operations personnel are often considered to have gone to great lengths to minimize collateral damage.^[4]

History

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.^[5]

The term 'collateral damage' has also been borrowed by the computing community to refer to the denial of service to legitimate users 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 ranges of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses rather than individual IPs associated with spam, and can deny legitimate users within those ranges the ability to send email to some domains.

The related term collateral mortality is also becoming prevalent, and probably derives from the term collateral damage. It has been applied to other spheres in addition to the original military context. An example is in fisheries where bycatch of species such as dolphins are called collateral mortality; i.e., they are species that die in pursuit of in the legal death of fishery targets, such as tuna.^[6]

International humanitarian law

Military necessity, along with distinction, and proportionality, are three important principles of international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict and how that relates to collateral damage.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court investigated allegations of War Crimes during 2003 invasion of Iraq and he published an open letter containing his findings. In a section titled "Allegations concerning War Crimes" elucidates this use of Military necessity, distinction and proportionality:

Under international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute, the death of civilians during an armed conflict, no matter how grave and regrettable, does not in itself constitute a war crime. International humanitarian law and the Rome Statute permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military objectives,^[7] even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur. A crime occurs if there is an intentional attack directed against civilians (principle of distinction) (Article 8(2)(b)(i)) or an attack is launched on a military objective in the knowledge that the incidental civilian injuries would be clearly excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage (principle of proportionality) (Article 8(2)(b)(iv). Article 8(2)(b)(iv) criminalizes:
Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated;
Article 8(2)(b)(iv) draws on the principles in Article 51(5)(b) of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, but restricts the criminal prohibition to cases that are "clearly" excessive. The application of Article 8(2)(b)(iv) requires, inter alia, an assessment of:
(a) the anticipated civilian damage or injury;
(b) the anticipated military advantage;
(c) and whether (a) was "clearly excessive" in relation to (b).

— Luis Moreno-Ocampo^[8]

Examples

• In an interview before his execution, convicted U.S. bomber (and Gulf War veteran) Timothy McVeigh referred to the deaths of 19 children killed in the government office building during the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing as "collateral damage".^[9]
• The phrase has been used by U.S.-led NATO armies in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Libya to diminish the moral impact of killings of thousands of unarmed civilians in the War on Terror.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]}

See also

• Civilian casualties
• Civilian casualty ratio
• Geneva Conventions
• Externality
• Philosophy of war
• Realpolitik
• Total war
• War crime
• Aesopian language
• Targeted killing

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "USAF Intelligence Targeting Guide — AIR FORCE PAMPHLET 14- 210 Intelligence". 1998-02-01. p. 180. http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afpam14-210/part20.htm#page180. Retrieved 2007-10-06. 
2. ^ Wayne R. Whitaker, Janet E. Ramsey, Ronald D. Smith (2004). Mediawriting: Print, Broadcast, and Public Relations. Routledge. p. 117. ISBN 0805846883. 
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ "Defense.gov News Article: U.S. Military Works to Avoid Civilian Deaths, Collateral Damage". Defenselink.mil. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=29337. Retrieved 2010-02-25. 
5. ^ Anthony H. Cordesman (2003). The Iraq War: Strategy, Tactics, and Military Lessons. Praeger/Greenwood. p. 266. ISBN 0275982270. http://books.google.com/books?id=dZuE9lJXkOQC&pg=PA266&dq=%22Collateral+damage%22+definition&as_brr=3&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&sig=jDN2xdE02Ph9kWyn_9X1ad5gFr0. 
6. ^ Chuenpagdee, R., Morgan, L.E., Maxwell, S.M., Norse, E.A. & Pauly, D. (2003) Shifting gears: assessing collateral impacts of fishing methods in US waters. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 1, 517-524.
7. ^ Article 52 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions provides a widely-accepted definition of military objective: "In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage" (Source: Luis Moreno-Ocampo References page 5, footnote 11).
8. ^ Luis Moreno-Ocampo OTP letter to senders re Iraq 9 February 2006. "Allegations concerning War Crimes" Pages 4,5
9. ^ Orwell Would Revel in 'Collateral Damage', Hussein Ibish, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 9, 2001.
10. ^ http://mycatbirdseat.com/2011/06/afghanistan-why-civilians-are-killed/
11. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)
12. ^ http://news.antiwar.com/2011/05/29/as-karzai-issues-last-warning-nato-strikes-continue/
13. ^ http://cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm
14. ^ http://cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm
15. ^ http://www.usip.org/publications/killing-friends-making-enemies-impact-and-avoidance-civilian-casualties-afghanistan
16. ^ http://thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/africa-mainmenu-27/8651-nato-rebels-accused-of-war-crimes-in-libya
17. ^ http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/libyan-war-updatesstop-nato-news-may-29-2011/
18. ^ http://theblotch.com/wordpress/?p=1496
19. ^ http://mycatbirdseat.com/2011/06/afghanistan-why-civilians-are-killed/
20. ^ http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/how-barack-obama-is-turning-the-corner-in-afghanistan

External links

• Beyond Precision: Issues of Morality and Decision Making in Minimizing Collateral Casualties, ACDIS Occasional Paper by Lt. Col. Dwight A. Roblyer
• USAF Intelligence Targeting Guide - Attachment 7 : Collateral Damage
• Army Technology
• Air Force Law Review, Wntr, 2005 by Jefferson D. Reynolds
• The Faces of “Collateral Damage” by Charlie Clements, Friends Journal, April 2003
• Collateral Damage during NATO bombing of SR Yugoslavia 1999 Warning: explicit images
• "Collateral Damage: A Military Euphemism for Murder" by Camillo "Mac" Bica, Znet, April 16, 2007