War and Moral Injury: A Reader

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Moral Injury has been called the "signature wound" of today's wars. It is also as old as the human record of war, as evidenced in the ancient war epics of Greece, India, and the Middle East. But what exactly is Moral Injury? What are its causes and consequences? What can we do to prevent or limit its occurrence among those we send to war? And, above all, what can we do to help heal afflicted warriors?

This landmark volume provides an invaluable resource for those looking for answers to these questions. Gathered here are some of the most far-ranging, authoritative, and accessible writings to date on the topic of Moral Injury. Contributors come from the fields of psychology, theology, philosophy, psychiatry, law, journalism, neuropsychiatry, classics, poetry, and, of course, the profession of arms. Their voices find common cause in informing the growing, international conversation on war and war's deepest and most enduring invisible wound. Few may want to have this myth-challenging, truth-telling conversation, but it is one we must have if we truly wish to help those we send to fight our wars.

"This book is a tremendous contribution to understanding Moral Injury, an impact of war largely unseen through ignorance or design. It should compel us individually and as nations to tackle mythologies contrived to glorify wars at the cost of the moral wellbeing of those sent to fight them--and to stop ignoring the costs to any nation's collective soul."
--Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize, Founding Coordinator, International Campaign to Ban Landmines

"War and Moral Injury is not only a work from the conscience, but from the heart. This earnest and moving collection of essays, poems, memoirs and meditations gives us a much-needed view of what it is to be human in the face of war, of how we are not made to kill, and of how doing so injures the human soul. A stunning and essential book."
--Helen Benedict, Columbia University, author of Wolf Season, Sand Queen, and The Lonely Soldier.

Robert Emmet Meagher is Professor of Humanities, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. His publications include numerous books, translations, and original plays, most recently Herakles Gone Mad: Rethinking Heroism in an Age of Endless War and Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War. Across many years he has served in a range of veteran-focused programs aimed at understanding and healing war's inner wounds, and since 2010 has led a VA literature seminar.

Douglas A. Pryer retired as a lieutenant colonel from the US Army military intelligence corps in August 2017, last serving on the Joint Staff as a Middle East political-military advisor. His military experience includes five years supporting combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo, and his essays and book, The Fight for the High Ground, explore warfare's moral and psychological dimensions. He is pursuing a PhD in International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth, Wales.

Other Contributors:
Anthony Camerino, Anthony J. Jack, Bill R. Edmonds, Bob Darlington, Braden Allenby, Brian Turner, Charles Pacello, Chester Nez, D. William Alexander, David Peters, Doug Anderson, Edward Tick, Eric Newhouse, Erik D. Masick, Euripides, Hamilton Gregory, HC Palmer, Jonathan Shay, Joshua Phillips, Kristen Leslie, Michael Lapsley, Michael Putzel, Monisha Rios, Peter D. Fromm, Peter G. Kilner, Peter Marin, Sean Levine, Shannon French, Siegfried Sassoon, Stefan J. Malecek, Steve Mason, Timothy Kudo, Tom Robert Frame, Tyler Boudreau, Wilfred Owen, William Allen Miller, William P. Mahedy, and William Shakespeare