What is the military word for mistake?

Answer 1

"regrettable excesses"? "over-reaction"? "judgment error"? It's pretty much the same words that governments and corporations in general use.

Sometimes the word "mistake" itself can be used, but only to describe a situation in which something was done wrong in a vacuum, with no particular person or group responsible. The phrase for that was first used in the Reagan era - "Mistakes were made." - in which it was admitted that mistakes were made, just that there hadn't actually been any person who had done anything wrong while that happened.

It is permissable for the military, or government, to refer to mistakes of the past. Typically 25 years must have gone by, and all the persons involved dead or too old to prosecute. Then one can admit the truth of what those called "conspiracy theorists" at the time had claimed all along.

When defining words in the military, one must be careful to know which military is being spoke of. If a given action - say the wholesale bombing of civilians - takes place, then this is "terrorism" if it is a foreign military or para-military power. If it is a military of our own, or of an ally, it is "collateral damage".

Note that out of respect for all military forces, even our enemies are not said to have made "mistakes". In the case of a foreign military force, all that they do are deliberate acts of pre-meditated cruelty, but certainly not "mistakes". And in the case of we and our allies, there are only such sorrowful things as "war's necessities", but never "mistakes".

My Father served in WWII and Korea. The answers is simple. SNAFU: situation normal all f...ked up.