America’s Moral Injury
Warriors live by a code. An honor code. When a warrior makes a promise, especially one forged in battle, they keep it or die trying. One key tenet of the unwritten American warrior code is “no man left behind.” This mantra is drilled in to you in military training until it becomes second nature in combat. For warriors, there is no question about who qualifies as a “man” that won’t be left behind. Man or woman, American or non-American, soldier or civilian, if you fight along side us, then you are one of us. We won’t leave you behind. It is that simple.
Prussian General and legendary military theorist Carl von Clausewitz wrote about the difference between being a mercenary and a warrior: “The soldier trade, if it is to mean anything at all, has to be anchored to an unshakable code of honor. Otherwise, those of us who follow the drums become nothing more than a bunch of hired assassins walking around in gaudy clothes . . . a disgrace to God and mankind.”
One warrior who is “anchored to an unshakable code of honor” is Marine Corps Major Tom Schueman. Tom’s indefatigable efforts to bring his Afghan interpreter Zak and Zak’s family safely to the United States during the fall of Kabul is magnificently documented in their co-authored story of shared sacrifice and brotherly love: Always Faithful. Tom is also the man who introduced me to the term moral injury. Tom learned about moral injury directly from the Doctor and clinical Psychiatrist who coined the phrase, Jonathan Shay. Shay defines moral injury as being caused by a “betrayal of ‘what’s right’ in a high-stakes situation by someone who holds power.”
Sadly, most of the recent focus on moral injury has been on its occurrence at a tactical level — in the military by the military. For example, a moral injury occurred if you were given a command by your unit leader to commit an act or you witnessed an act that betrayed your own sense of morality. This appears in overused military tropes of a civilian village burned to the ground or the torture and mistreatment of enemy prisoners and noncombatants. While I acknowledge these transgressions sometimes happen, it is the rare exception and not how most of our servicemembers conduct themselves in war. My personal take is that the real moral injury of our time is the failure of our political leaders to uphold the same honor code as our warriors. We made promises, to those who served along side us and risked their lives fighting for our country, that our politicians do not appear willing to uphold.
Around 80,000 Afghan people were evacuated to the United States during the fall of Kabul. These are people, like Zak, who fought alongside our military as interpreters. These are people who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. These are people who fought against the Taliban and defended human rights, democracy, and equality for women. Most of these people are facing possible deportation if the U.S. Congress fails to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act. If they are deported back to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, they will certainly be tortured and killed. They were given temporary status in the United States under humanitarian parole, but that will come to an end soon. Only about 2,000 Afghan refugees have been able to apply for asylum in the U.S. People, like Zak who literally risked his life and his family for the United States, are being denied Special Immigrant Visas by the U.S. State Department due to bureaucratic incompetence.
What some U.S. government leaders are failing to realize is they are putting our national security and our military members, now and in the future, at risk by not keeping our promises. Thirty retired U.S. military generals and admirals recently sent a letter to the leaders of Congress detailing why passing the Afghan Adjustment Act is essential to keeping America and its military safe — they called it a “moral imperative” and it is one. They urged congress to include the act in their omnibus spending bill. The first signature on the letter is U.S. Marine Corps General “fighting Joe” Dunford, the former Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both Presidents Obama and Trump. This is not a political issue, it is one about living in accordance with our warrior code. I served with then Colonel Dunford in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 when he commanded the fabled 5th Marine Regiment. He is one of the greatest leaders I have ever known and had the privilege of serving with.
Sadly, Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, helped torpedo the Afghan Adjustment Act by doing everything he could to keep it out of the omnibus spending bill. He claims there are security concerns about the Afghan refugees who were given humanitarian parole. The Afghan Adjustment Act actually requires all Afghan refugees to be thoroughly vetted with background checks before being allowed to remain in the United States. Do you actually believe 30 U.S. flag officers would support a bill that undermines our national security? So, in this instance, the person causing the most damage to our national security is in fact Senator Grassley. He is not only putting Afghan refugees who fought for the United States in danger, he is putting our service members at risk and undermining our diplomacy. Senator Grassley, as someone who holds power, is causing the ultimate moral injury to our warriors and America by betraying what’s right in a high-stakes situation.
There is often a divide in society between the morality of its warriors and the politicians who send them to war. My ethics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, Dr. Shannon French wrote about this in her book The Code of the Warrior, “In many cases, this code of honor seems to hold the warrior to a higher ethical standard than that required for an ordinary citizen within the general population of the society the warrior serves. The code is not imposed from the outside. The warriors themselves police strict adherence to these standards; with violators being shamed, ostracized, or even killed by their peers.” Warriors, it is time for us to hold our political leaders, like Senator Grassley, to the same code of honor we strive to live by.
