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For other uses, see Collateral damage (disambiguation).

Collateral damage is damage that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. [1] The term originated in the U.S. military, perhaps as a euphemism, but it has since expanded into general use, including Hollywood and the computing community. The United States Armed Forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener or in the case of doublespeak

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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). Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the Liturgical language of the medieval 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]

According to the USAF Intelligence Targeting Guide, the term means:

" [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]

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 have gone to great lengths to minimize collateral damage.

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. A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener or in the case of doublespeak The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Friendly fire or non-hostile fire, a term originally adopted by the United States military, refers to fire from one's own side or allied forces as [3]

However, the expression "collateral damage" may have probably originated as military doublespeak rather than as a euphemism, as the adjective "collateral" doesn't seem to have been used as a synonym for "unintentional" or "accidental" earlier. Doublespeak (sometimes double talk) is language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the This article deals with the general meaning of the term "synonym"

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. A DNS Blacklist, or DNSBL ( definition below) is a means by which an Internet site may publish a list of IP addresses that some people may want to avoid E-mail spam, also known as "bulk e-mail" or "junk e-mail" is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by The Internet Protocol ( IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a Packet-switched Internetwork using the Internet Protocol

Example

See also

References

  1. ^ a b USAF Intelligence Targeting Guide - AIR FORCE PAMPHLET 14- 210 Intelligence pp. Civilian casualties is a Military term describing Civilian or Non-combatant persons killed or injured by military action The Geneva Conventions consist of four Treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for International law for humanitarian In Economics, an externality is an impact on any party not directly involved in an economic decision The philosophy of war examines War beyond the typical questions of Weaponry and strategy, inquiring into such things as the meaning and Etiology Realpolitik ( German: de real “realistic” “practical” or “actual” and de Politik “politics” refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a Belligerent engages in a total mobilization of all available resources at his disposal War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war" including but not limited to "murder the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied 180 (1 FEBRUARY 1998). Retrieved on 2007-10-06. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 105 BC - Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus
  2. ^ Wayne R. Whitaker, Janet E. Ramsey, Ronald D. Smith (2004). Mediawriting: Print, Broadcast, and Public Relations. Routledge, 117. ISBN 0805846883.  
  3. ^ Anthony H. Cordesman (2003). The Iraq War: Strategy, Tactics, and Military Lessons. Praeger/Greenwood, 266. ISBN 0275982270.  
  4. ^ Orwell Would Revel in 'Collateral Damage', Hussein Ibish, Los Angeles Times, Apr. The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily Newspaper published in Los Angeles California and distributed 9, 2001.

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