The Culture of Collateral Damage: A Genealogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT American culture makes divisions between worthy and worthless lives. This distinction is justified by a cultural logic that deflects the murder of people as the unintended consequences of social and foreign policy. The phrase “collateral damage,” first developed by the United States military to deflect civilian deaths caused by aerial bombing is now seen as metaphor for the larger social policy of the American government both at home and abroad.