Collateral Damage: A Military Euphemism for Murder
ALI, AN 12-YEAR OLD IRAQI VICTIM OF THE WAR. JUST ANOTHER CASE OF “COLLATERAL DAMAGE.”
BY CAMILLO “MAC” BICA
Inherent in modern war-making practice is the conviction that there is a significant moral difference between killing innocent civilians in an attack such as that on the World Trade Center or on a bus filled with college students and killing noncombatants during a military response to such an attack. This conviction is clearly demonstrated in a myriad of against Palestinian terrorist groups such as and in the US war in , , , and . It is reflected, as well, in the language used to describe the innocent deaths, the value laden term “” in the case of the former, and the morally neutral term “collateral damage” in the latter.War, even as a response to terrorism is rule governed. According to Just War Theory and a myriad of international agreements and treaties, war is evaluated according to whether established criteria are satisfied. One of the most important rules of war is the legal and moral prohibition against the targeting and killing of innocents, i.e., the criterion of discriminating and affording of immunity to noncombatants - . Since noncombatants are neither directly nor indirectly involved in the prosecution of a terrorist attack or of a war, they have done nothing to warrant a forfeiture of their immunity. Consequently, to kill noncombatants to further some goal or objective whether political, religious, or social, even if for a just cause, is not an act of war but of murder and fundamental to our understanding of terrorism. That is, the Criterion of Discrimination is integral in differentiating war from terrorism and killing in war from murder. Acts of terrorism, unlike acts of war, knowingly harm and kill noncombatants. [Read more →]
