Today the German minister of defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg gave a statement concerning the recent combats involving German soldiers in Afghanistan:

Auch wenn es nicht jedem gefällt, so kann man angesichts dessen, was sich in Afghanistan, in Teilen Afghanistans abspielt, durchaus umgangssprachlich – ich betone umgangssprachlich – in Afghanistan von Krieg reden, meine Damen und Herren.

[Though it might not appeal to everyone, you can speak about war in Afghanistan colloquially – I’m stressing colloquially – given what is happening in Afghanistan, in parts of Afghanistan, ladies and gentlemen.]

In this statement he is also speaking about soldiers being “killed in action” – a term that has been avoided thoroughly by German officials earlier. CtV and I were wondering if maybe this can be attributed to the fact that simply everyone being capable to write a good-ole meaningless statement is on vacation right now. So we came up with some alternatives for future situations like this. Instead of calling them “killed in action” you might better use these terms:

• unintentionally faded
• casualty as a consequence of external influence
• due to unsufficient reflexes Darwinisticly rejected