Collateral Damage

Collateral damage is a non-descript term used for civilians killed and property destroyed that are not the specific target of an attack. Tends to take the humanity out of things (woudn't want that mucking things up you see).

I don't really do posts or write about Iraq, mostly because it ticks me off too much. There was a bombing in Iraq today.

The U.S. military on Saturday fired missiles at a target about 50 yards away from the general hospital in Baghdad's Sadr City district, wounding more than 20 people and destroying ambulances, hospital officials said

A poster on Kos has this to say:

Of course, the military was aiming at a building occupied by "a criminal element," and by all accounts that building was destroyed. The building happened to be a chapel used by the hospital workers.

But does it matter that there was no intent to hurt civilians?

This kind of incident certainly isn't new. It's hardly even news. Air strikes in this conflict have by now taken out weddings and schools, convoys of government officials on their way to a conference, and a countless individuals that just happened to live in the wrong neighborhood. Of course it's accidental. of course it's regrettable. But if it was your family, would that matter? Would it matter if your children?

One of these days, all of those supporters of this war will be called to account and asked this question. I wonder how they will answer.


And here is the rest of it.