Civilian Casulties as Collateral Damage

Collateral damage is the damage that  comprised accidental.  Collateral damage is a military term for the mass murder of civilians through the use of weapons which are known in advance to be imprecise or to cause damage across a large area.


Basicly, the concept of collateral damage is the “Doctrine of Double Effect” (DDE). It developed by Catholic casuits during the Middle Ages. The DDE morally differentiates the intended effects of an act from those that are unintended. Plus, by focusing on the moral importance of intention and its relevance to moral agency and responsibility, the DDE morally distinguishes killing as an unintended, secondary effect  -collateral damage- from murder. So, collateral damage is an euphemism and firstly, used as a military term during the Vietnam War, because of killing civil society and destroying their private properties. However, collateral damage has many meanings also.

Representing collateral damage, needs very sensitiveness, because it’s a fault eventually. Killing people accidentally and discussing and deciding the minimal damage are not cheerful things. So it is important to representing collateral damage in the right ethical position. In my opinion, the way it’s representing is not disturbing. Media knows how to report it as news, refraining from disturbing. That’s the point, representing collateral damage objectively, shortly and refraining from disturbing is the best for representing it in the right

ethical position.

            

In a conclusion, issues of morality and desicion making in minimizing collateral damage  are sensitive subjects. But the bad scenerio is, the quicker we go extinct, the less collateral damage we cause the rest of the universe.


Eyşan Aydoğdu