MORAL INJURY: UNSEEN WOUNDS IN AN AGE OF BARBARISM
Moral Injury is a new field of study looking beyond the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder often suffered by military personnel. It occurs when an individual is asked to do something which breaches their conscience. All recent conflicts have the prerequisites or the potential to cause significant Moral Injury: A government’s decision to involve its forces in unjust wars where either the cause or the conduct is wrong or open to serious conscientious objection, the deployment of forces in pursuit of a mission that is ambiguous with a mandate that is vague; where the translation of political aspirations to military objectives is imprecise or impractical; and when the deployed forces are ill-prepared, poorly structured and inadequately equipped. And when the loss of moral ascendancy within the force reflected in indifference to the rule of law and manifested in an erosion of discipline.
