Did he say it was "good" collateral damage? Did he say it was the kind of collateral damage he'd like to experience?
If a military operation was carried out in Australia and civilians were killed unintentionally, it would be called collateral damage.
You remind me of those heartless, devoid-of-compassion military generals. When asked questions about civilian casualties, the term 'collateral damage' is never far away. It's one of the buzz phrases in which the media lap up. Instead of reporting the reality of the situation, such as: '300 innocent men, women & children were killed in the missile strike', instead you get bastardized rhetoric such as: 'The bombing was a success, suffering only some collateral damage'.
At the end of the day, no matter which way you wish to spin it, the term means the murder of innocent people as an unfortunate 'result'. If Australia was at war, and your family was 'accidentally' bombed and were considered nothing more than collateral damage, how would you feel about that?
Bear that in mind when you uses such phrases when referring to wars in which well over a million people have died. To call them 'collateral' is to devalue human life itself.