People are not "collateral damage." EVER! That term should be

stricken from use as such. It isn't only applicable to military situations.

Once it becomes embedded in the human conscience then it becomes easy to see a lot of people in that light. The people who are denied coverage by insurance companies are seen as collateral damage in order to maximize profits.

At other times, people are written off as "collateral damage" if they get in the way of your beliefs or ideas. Anybody who might have been killed with Dr.Tiller would be regarded as such.

The term reduces people to things not human beings. In that sense thay are disposable. However, for those that loved them, they are now holes in their hearts.

We need to regard them as people all the time in order to understand what the cost is in any situation. To become so callous that we look on them as mere puppets, our souls and hearts are "collateral damage." I believe it can come back to haunt those who have taken that view and then changed their perspective.

The bell is tolling, and we all should hear it.

for being in the wrong place or fallen into the cracks or considered disposable by the military leaders or the Corporations?

When I hear or read the words 'collateral damage' the picture I get in my mind is of photos I've seen of children killed by the weapons of war. It seems that no descriptive phrase would be enough, but if we stop using the term then I fear the innocent victims will have no name at all.

The reason you see those that are "collateral damage" in those terms is because that is the phrase used all the time IMHO. It is impersonal and unfeeling.

I specify innocent children a lot. Why not use as many descriptive terms as possible? That's what I try to do.

Everyone has a name.

Don

of innocent people being killed because of the neo-con need to control all the natural resources on the planet.

"Death, disability and disfigurement of civilian adults, children and infants." (Ed. for typo)

And anything else we've missed.

Hell wishes it were war.

Someones antenna should have went up right then and there.

Don

seems to suggest this is something that is starting and should stop.

It isn't starting, it's the way it's always been discussed and I doubt your outrage will change it. Those that find it an appropriate term don't give a shit about you, your offended sensibilities, or anyone who gets between them and the resources they intend on dominating.

Oh, and they never will care either.

I would never get out of bed. My post actually shows how shamefully I have let the term fly by me for a long time.

I don't care if they don't worry or care about how I feel. I know they don't, but if people stop pushing nothing ever changes. Ever.

So thank you for trying to drop rain on the post. I was drenched a long time ago pursuing what I thought was right.

It certainly took a very negative post to point that out. Was it your turn to rain on the parade?

I expect to have people who don't agree with me. However, for the life of me I can't figure out why you posted what you did in the manner in which you did.