Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 78

(Photo by Spc. Ryan Hallock, 28th Public Affairs Detachment)

A soldier identified as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales appeared in this photo and in an article in High Desert Warrior, a military website, in 2011.
Bales was sentenced to life in prison without parole 23 August 2013 after pleading guilty of killing 16 Afghan villagers on 11 March 2012.

Yet, killing of any kind still causes anguish in the
human heart. The weight of this anguish crushes the
human and unhinges the psyche. In fact, according
to Roy L. Swank and Walter E. Marchand, an average human being can survive only 60 days of unrelenting sustained combat before he or she breaks
down mentally.30 Witnessing or perpetrating unjust
killing is a particularly traumatic experience.
In a 2008 article, Pvt. 1st Class Earl Coffey
describes an anguish-causing desecration from the
Iraq War to correspondent Billy Cox.31 In the 2003
incident, a civilian vehicle had failed to stop, and
this was interpreted as a threat:
I saw an Abrams [tank] fire a super sabot
round right through a pickup truck, and
the woman who got out begged us to kill
her while she watched her husband and
her children burn to death … In perfect
English, she’s saying, “Why? Why are you
doing this? We’re Christians!”32
According to Shay, the ruin of the soul caused by
the unraveling of moral character in the face of continued combat and traumatic experiences is termed
moral injury, and it is associated with acute stress
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disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder.33 During
the American Civil War, it was called “soldier’s
heart.” In World War I, it was called “shell shock.”
In World War II, it was termed “combat fatigue.” In
Vietnam, it would be called “combat stress reaction.”
Stress disorder focuses on the trauma of an event
while moral injury focuses on grief, regret, betrayal,
shame, and other spiritual aspects of combat. Combat
operational stress affects all soldiers who participate in
war, and most symptoms subside over time. However,
prolonged combat—or particularly traumatic experiences—can leave soldiers affected for life.
A study by the Institute of Medicine of the National
Academies reports that the majority of troops back
from Iraq and Afghanistan have had few problems
readjusting. The study finds that 44 percent report
some difficulties, which may include depression and
alcohol use. Of this group, another 3 to 20 percent will
be affected with what is now termed “stress illness.”34
According to post-traumatic stress disorder
expert Dr. Bridget Cantrell, soldiers without moral
grounding appear to have a tougher time resisting
post-traumatic stress disorder. Cantrell and Chuck
Dean describe how one soldier who fought in Central
March-April 2015  MILITARY REVIEW