And Then Your Soul is Gone; Moral Injury and U.S. War-culture; Denton-Borhaug

Kelly Denton-Borhaug [+–]

Moravian College

Kelly Denton-Borhaug is Professor in the Global Religions Department at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The sharp and unforgiving suffering of the morally injured veteran cannot be fully understood, much less effectively addressed, without a comprehensive investigation of moral injury’s underlying causes in American culture and society.

And Then Your Soul is Gone exposes the threads of violence that tie together the naturalized dynamics of U.S. ways of war and militarization with collective practices of national distraction and self-deception. It shows how these same threads of violence are also tightly woven and sacralized in the tapestry of U.S. national identity, tragically concealing moral injury from greater consciousness, and sourcing its toxic growth in the very lives of those the nation claims it most highly esteems, our military service members and veterans.

Drawing on Claudia Card’s philosophical framework, moral injury here is characterized as an atrocity, “a foreseeable intolerable harm caused by culpable wrongdoing.” These atrocities are shown to be flash-points revealing important truths regarding the unlivable consequences of U.S. war-culture and highlighting the urgent need to rethink the meaning of U.S. nationalism, desacralize violence, and support life.

And Then Your Soul is Gone will be of interest to students and scholars of religion and philosophy, military service members and veterans, concerned citizens, chaplains and religious leaders.

Preface

Preface [+–] ix-xii

The sharp and unforgiving suffering of the morally injured veteran cannot be fully understood, much less effectively addressed, without a comprehensive investigation of moral injury’s underlying causes in American culture and society. This book exposes the threads of violence that tie together the naturalized dynamics of U.S. ways of war and militarization with collective practices of national distraction and self-deception. It shows how these same threads of violence are also tightly woven and sacralized in the tapestry of U.S. national identity, tragically concealing moral injury from greater consciousness, and sourcing its toxic growth – ironically — in the very lives of those the nation claims it most highly esteems, our military service members and veterans. Drawing on Claudia Card’s philosophical framework, moral injury here is characterized as an atrocity, “a foreseeable intolerable harm caused by culpable wrongdoing.” These atrocities are shown to be flash-points revealing important truths regarding the unlivable consequences of U.S. war-culture and highlighting the urgent need to rethink the meaning of U.S. nationalism, desacralize violence, and support life.

Introduction

Moral Injury and the Triangle of Violence [+–] 1-26

First, this introduction provides an overview of the phenomenon of military moral injury and the current state of research about it. Second, I outline the purpose and aim of this manuscript, to undertake a social analysis of moral injury. I contrast my method with other moral injury research and justify the significance of this approach. This leads to explanation of the primary theoretical frameworks I utilize, Johan Galtung’s theory of “the triangle of violence”; and Claudia Card’s theory of atrocity. The Introduction closes with a brief summary of each of the book’s chapters.

Chapter 1

Moral Injury and U.S. War-culture [+–] 27-52

Chapter One explores individual experiences of moral injury in the wider context of “U.S. war-culture,” beginning with a case study of one veteran’s painful struggle. But structures and social practices of U.S. war-culture, and the ideology of “the necessity of war-as-sacrifice” promote concealment of the destructiveness and costs of U.S. war, and muddle awareness of the moral injury’s devastation in the consciousness of most Americans. Chapter One also draws on two recent novels that highlight a more personal and descriptive portrayal of moral injury, The Yellow Birds, a National Book Award finalist, by Iraq veteran and author Kevin Powers; and Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain. These literary depictions push past concealment to a deeper understanding of the inner dynamics of moral injury, and suggest that moral injury inevitably is sourced by diverse structural and cultural factors of violence in the war-culture that lie at its roots.

Chapter 2

Moral Injury and Structural Violence [+–] 53-95

Chapter Two investigates three pillars of structural violence embedded in the war-culture of the United States that inevitably are linked to the development of military moral injury: 1) the permanent war economy, 2) the U.S. “empire of bases,” and 3) the reverberations of “interpenetration,” as the structures of militarization continuously interact with and influence countless sites of supposed “civilian” life in the United States. Many scholars have written with compelling urgency about the destructive forces of structural violence in U.S. war-culture, yet seemingly paradoxically, most U.S. citizens appear to be unconcerned and/or unaware. I draw from the theory of Latin American Liberation theologian, Jon Sobrino of El Salvador, who characterizes the contemporary world by way not only of its structural and cultural violence, but also its practices of concealment of both injustice and violence. One of the most significant concealers of the devastation of war-culture involves the role of religion; Chapter Two explores how sacrificial rhetoric and cognitive framing rising from religious and civil religious sources mask and reframe violence. Lastly, the concept of “the grey zone” from writer Primo Levi is introduced as a frame that helps us better understand the ambiguity faced by servicemembers and veterans in the world-turned-upside-down of structural violence in both war and war-culture.

Chapter 3

Moral Injury and Cultural Violence [+–] 97-137

Chapter Three, “Moral Injury and Cultural Violence,” turns to Galtung’s final tip of the violence triangle, the role of culture at the deepest roots of the phenomenon of military moral injury. Three vectors of inter-mixing cultural violence sourcing military moral injury here are investigated: 1) ideologies of military masculinity, 2) the role of religion, and 3) the interplay of dominant frames of national identity. I identify and explore three exposes of “military masculinities,” that reveal the deep ambiguities faced by members of military branches. Stated military values, such as those from the U.S. Army, “loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage,” deeply conflict with actual realities of military acculturation in the U.S. armed services. Religion also comes into play here, because training in “expendability,” as Kathleen Barry describes one primary model of military masculinity, is both undergirded and justified by way of (civil) religious patterns that extol “the ultimate sacrifice.” Religio-national frameworks of masculinity derive from both structural and cultural sources and intermix with dominant portrayals of nationalism. All these factors form the bedrock that gives rise to moral injury, and both mask and rationalize the resulting inequitable distribution of suffering and loss. The chapter concludes with reflection on the case of one veteran, “Mr. Jones,” a military convoy driver, who was ordered to commandeer his military vehicle to crush an Iraqi boy who did not get out of the middle of the road. We trace the myriad causes leading to this particular case of military moral injury, and also analyze what went wrong with regard to the professional treatment of his suffering, following his return to the United States and discharge from military service.

Chapter 4

Moral Injury and Atrocity [+–] 139-176

Chapter Four, “Moral Injury and Atrocity,” introduces the philosophical theory of feminist philosopher Claudia Card to propose the following: moral injury is an atrocity, as described by Card, a “foreseeable intolerable harm produced by culpable wrongdoing.” Card’s theory of atrocity sets moral injury into sharper relief, demonstrating why our understanding must move beyond a focus on individual experience, to a deeper investigation of moral injury‘s structural and cultural violence. In contrast to various fatalistic or unquestioning attitudes, Card writes, “We need a theoretical account of what makes wrongdoing serious enough to count as evil or in what ways it is serious. `Evil’ is a heavy judgment.” Card’s theoretical distinctions provide a pathway to sift through the many ambiguities and complexities involved in ethical deliberation about moral injury as an “evil,” such that in the end, thought about the phenomenon of moral injury is advanced, leaving us in a better place, as Card hopes, to better know what to do about this evil, and how to transform it. The chapter applies Card’s theory to one last case study, the suffering experienced by “Andy,” a veteran whose moral injury led him to the brink of self-destruction. Analysis of Andy’s experience, including the interplay of structural and cultural violence in his individual experience, shows how and why the macro phenomenon of military moral injury as a whole, should be understood as “atrocity.” But going further, the chapter also explores the gradual transformation that is taking place regarding Andy’s leadership in a relatively new Moral Injury Program that has been developed at a Philadelphia Veterans Affairs hospital. The labor that has been undertaken by Andy, other veterans, and the professional caregivers in this program, reveals insight about the indispensable need and role for a deeper social analysis of military moral injury, for people like Andy, their families and care providers, everyday citizens, and people across the world whose lives are affected by U.S. wars.

Chapter 5

Toward Building a Different World: A National Swerve [+–] 177-226

Chapter Five explores the consequences rising out of a social analysis of moral injury: a clearer view motivates a new perspective, seeing war through a different lens, and rethinking the human worldbuilding of war-culture. Increased collective awareness regarding moral injury an atrocity, an intolerable and culpable harm that human beings have the power to mitigate, challenges human assumptions regarding war as inevitable and a sacred pillar of the nation. This new lens strengthens nascent cultural swerves in national patterns of thought, imagination and identity. Examples of such morphing notions of identity, and concomitant decision-making regarding the use of violence, include the Covid-19 pandemic, that has strengthened collective calls for a pause among militaries and militias, the complete overhauling of institutions of police in the U.S., and at least a temporary ceasing of the violence of war in order to address the needs of public health. Calls to address the violence of police brutality in the 2020 landscape of the United States may not be separated from the violence of war-culture coming home to roost in the nation’s streets, communities, and places of incarceration. Human beings are capable of rethinking our world-building. A shifting, swerving U.S. national identity could dethrone war and militarism in the national imaginary. But any re-evaluation involves effort to refuse the dominant mode U.S. nationalism that sacralizes war and militarism as “the necessary sacrifice for human/national security and wellbeing.” Unsettling such ground opens the way to further questions, regarding beliefs about conflict, security, militarism and war; indeed, we cannot help but be faced with the senseless world-building in a culture of war, and our deep ties of identification with it. In the end, if human beings were to discard the assumption that moral injury is a necessary ethical accommodation in a world of war, what other kinds of identity, and what architectural shapes of world-building would we create?

End Matter

Notes 227-261

Bibliography 263-281

Index 283-301

Recent Podcasts featuring the author:

“Keeping Democracy Alive” with Burt Cohen: http://keepingdemocracyalive.com/veterans-and-suicide-the-moral-injury-we-dont-want-to-see/

From “Scheer Intelligence with Bob Scheer”: https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/scheer-intelligence/kelly-denton-borhaug-christianity-war-moral

Nonviolence Radio with Michael Nagler and Stephanie Van Hook,

Guest Post on TomDispatch A Parable of (All-American) Violence: Accountability and the War of Terror

Recent Articles by the author:

“America’s Deadly Addiction to War—And the Intolerable Price Veterans Pay for It.” Salon.com. Nov. 11, 2022. (First published at TomDispatch.com)

“With Violence, America Reaps What It Sows,” The Nation, Feb. 24. 2022.

“The Deadly Consequences of Making War `Sacred,'” Sojourners Magazine, February 2022.

Reviews

With a discerning ear for the personal story, Professor Kelly Denton-Borhaug offers an impassioned cultural and political critique of the moral costs of war and an analysis of the role of certain types of religion in undergirding these harms. All too often, as she shows, notions of masculinity and nationalism, along with the rhetoric of sacrifice, obscure the consequences of brutality and atrocity. Moral injury is a thoughtful exploration of structural and cultural violence and its devastating impact on national identity.
Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

We are a warlike nation. That we let 1% of our citizens do our fighting for us does not alter that fact. We are a violent people, whatever our race, gender, or ZIP code. Professor Denton-Borhaug lifts the veil from these and other unwelcome truths in this brilliant book, distilling decades of scholarship and insight, and dispelling our militaristic delusions. A must read for truth-seekers and peacemakers, and for all who wonder why they experience such confusion and inner pain in our pervasive war culture.
Robert Emmet Meagher, author of Killing From the Inside Out and Albert Camus and the Human Crisis

While I am a cautious reader or advocate of scholarly books – books that are dependent on the intellect over lived experience – Kelly Denton-Borhaug’s effort transcends this tendency. This book is not only insightful, well crafted, sensitive and thoughtful – this book is brilliant.
Claude AnShin Thomas, Zen Buddhist monk and author of At Hell’s Gate, A Soldiers Journey From War To Peace and Bringing Meditation To Life

Through Kelly Denton-Borhaug’s relentless pursuit of the question, “can human morality really be accommodated with war?” she uses the “atrocity” of moral injury as a flashpoint, a lens through which to see realities and truths about war often obscured by U.S. war-culture. Her social, structural, and cultural analysis compels the reader to “revisit and rethink the purpose and meaning of the military, the nation, even citizenship, and especially the (civil) religious underpinnings of U.S. national identity.” Ultimately, the reader will find herself reevaluating everything in light of the atrocity of moral injury. A necessary work for any scholar, caregiver, or person who lives in the United States, immersed in a structure and culture of war.
Rev. Dr. Michael Yandell, Senior Minister at First Christian Church, Greensboro, NC, and author of War and Negative Revelation: A Theoethical Reflection on Moral Injury

The intermingling of sexism, war, abuse, dishonor, and so many other complicated dynamics make and exacerbate moral injury. This is a must-read for all who are inclined to understand these dynamics especially in veterans, in order to banish them from societies now so replete with bellicose ways that there often appears no way out. The author shows some creative solutions and a deep reverence for the lives in the balance.
Dr Mary Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual

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And Then Your Soul is Gone

Moral Injury and U.S. War-culture

Kelly Denton-Borhaug [+–]

Moravian College

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