What is the Meaning & Definition of collateral damage

The concept of collateral damage is usually applied in the context of war actions. Thus, occurs a collateral damage when the destruction of a military objective is accompanied by a side effect that was not initially planned. A common example would be the following: there is a bombardment of some military units of the enemy, but the consequences of the bombing just affecting the civilian population which has nothing to do with the conflict.

Collateral damage and official communication

The war in the century XXl has a direct relationship with the media. This circumstance has consequences: citizens have direct information of what is happening in the context of a conflict and even can follow the events live on television. Obviously, this originates that makers of the armies have to give explanations on some military decisions. And in this context it is quite common that a military spokesman offered a press conference and before the questions of journalists about the effects of war on the civilian population say it is collateral damage.
In this way, the concept of collateral damage becomes an explanation that pretends to be technically valid but that, ultimately, connects a perverse element: that the war means destruction, even on non-war and therefore completely innocent people.
The use of this term has become popular in the terminology of the armed conflicts and actually highlights a simple excuse, because supposedly caused collateral damage are not intentional but are an undesirable consequence within the dynamics of the war (it is worth mentioning that other terms function as synonyms, for example, accidental damage (, additional damage and the like).

From a historical point of view, the term that concerns us began to be used in the media in the Persian Golfo Guerra in 1991, when those responsible for the bombings had to justify the suffering and death of civilian victims of the conflict.

Collateral damage as a euphemism

Some journalists and analysts now have indicated the perverse use of the concept of collateral damage. They claim that it is a euphemism that intends to camouflage an action that has no justification.
The idea of collateral damage is used as a model of journalistic understatement. In other words, it's a good example to illustrate that the words can be used to hide the true reality of the facts.