I mentioned the idea of Moral Injury recently to a friend recently. She asked me to summarize it one word. I said ‘Betrayal’. And I do think that is correct.
My friend immediately jumped to the idea of PTSD that is a recognized condition by the medical community and effects veterans, but not only veterans. For example, victims of sexual assault also suffer from PTSD. Any serious trauma may result in PTSD. But moral injury and PTSD are not the same thing.
I first ran into the words and the idea that moral injury exists on the Veterans for Peace website several years ago. At that time it seemed plausible that such a thing could exist for Vets but I did not pursue it.
Recently I have seen the term bandied about and addressed in the context of Veterans and how very real it is for them as they struggle with it. Moral injury is not limited to Veterans, but does effect many of them deeply.
Here are some comments by professionals about Moral Injury:
Quoted selections from https://moralinjuryproject.syr.edu/about-moral-injury/
Moral injury is the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress one’s own moral beliefs, values, or ethical codes of conduct.
Within the context of military service, particularly regarding the experience of war, “moral injury” refers to the lasting emotional, psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual impacts of actions that violate a service member’s core moral values and behavioral expectations of self or others (Litz et al., 2009)…
Drescher et al. (2011) define moral injury as “disruption in an individual’s confidence and expectations about one’s own or others’ motivation or capacity to behave in a just and ethical manner” (p. 9)…
Shay (2014) emphasizes leadership failure and a “betrayal of what’s right, by a person who holds legitimate authority in a high stakes situation.”
Silver (2011) speaks of, “a deep soul wound that pierces a person’s identity, sense of morality, and relationship to society” (para. 6)….
Our basic American culture teaches us “Thou shalt not kill.” The military turns this commandment on its head. That is a betrayal. If one holds deep religious convictions in a Judeo/Christian culture it is a betrayal. If one does not hold such convictions is not really an issue, as the concept is deeply embedded in American culture.
The concept of the Golden Rule also holds sway. Versions of the Golden Rule occur in all the great religions of the world. The idea of “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you” also permeates cultures and religions then, even if people are not Christians.
The hierarchical military includes orders to be followed from authoritarian figures at the top, from generals down to all commanding officers, including the president in the USA who is chief commanding officer of the military. The attitude of obedience to authority is summed up in the phrase, “I got my orders.”
The Constitution was written making the president chief commander in charge of the military as a bow to George Washington, who was the first U.S. president and also led the troops against all odds in the Revolutionary War.
U.S. presidents have understood this title and may have a military background or may not. They have deferred to military advisors and have sought the approval the U.S. Constitution calls for, the approval of Congress to go to war.
For example, after Pearl Harbor the U.S. Congress immediately declared war after what had been a reluctant public in debate after WW I because it was supposed to be “the war that ended all wars.”
After WWII an example was the Korean “war” that was not approved by Congress and was called a “Police Action” or “Intervention” because so many had been killed, Americans and others, in WWII: It was limited to North and South Korea and called the “Korean Conflict.”
It is of note that General Dwight D. Eisenhower became President Eisenhower and is famous for his statement regarding the military industrial complex:
On January 17, 1961, in this farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the establishment of a “military-industrial complex:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.[8]
Two items of note about this statement. First, it was originally written as the military-industrial-congressional complex:
In the penultimate draft of his final address, President Eisenhower warned of the “growing influence of the military-industrial-congressional complex” but decided to strike the word “congressional” because he thought it was “not fitting. . . for a President to criticize Congress.” Wm. Hartung
Second, while the statement rightly targets the arms industry, it serves also as a warning about corporate takeover in general and so includes the oil industry, weapons industry, and AI. Also it now applies to the media, especially with the new consolidation of Warner Bros. and Paramount.
In fact as we now have the digital revolution, and as part of that the AI revolution, it has been correctly suggested that the phrase be the military-industrial-digital complex.
Here is a another part of Eisenhower’s January 17, 1951 speech:
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
In contrast we now have a president who worships militarism and controls Congress. He continually uses fear and hate to try to intimidate people. And he did not ask Congress for approval of the current Iran war, which has exploded into a Middle East war. It is a war about Big Oil fossil fuel and the money the oil companies have been making for years and are now making more money while the U.S. murders Iranian officials and pretends to seek peace with Iran; but whoops, every effort is scuttled (Trump blames Iran of course) and the oil companies benefit from raised oil prices for the consumer at the pump.
He has also attacked Cuba and cut them off from supplies they need to survive, especially oil which without oil they cannot make the electricity necessary for not only for light but for hospitals, etc.
The arms industry is also making a lot of money from the Iran war, if not as much as the oil industry that continues to help poison the air.
The Trump regime ignores the fact that the U.S. military is the greatest polluter on earth with its many military bases worldwide. That’s CO2 (carbon) and also high in methane gas emissions. Then there’s PFAS that poisons the water.
The fight against the war machine and the fight to save the planet is the same fight. — Abby Martin
From the film:
And what this have to do with moral injury? Isn’t that only for people like veterans who have suffered that in war?
NO, it is for you and for me.
Trump makes a practice of defying the U.S. Constitution with his “executive orders,” his constant lies and coverups. One obvious example is his hand in the coverup of the Epstein files as proof comes forward that he was directly involved. Also his campaign promises for the 2024 elections; he hasn’t kept any. He has betrayed those who voted for him along with betraying the U.S. Constitution. His presidency is “a community of dreadful fear and hate ” at every turn.
While initially applied to the military, moral injury is now identified in diverse populations, including health professionals, lawyers, public servants, and teachers.
I include activists in that list. While we may have suffered moral injury in the past in our quest for peace and justice, it has never been to the extent of the betrayal by the Trump regime along with Israel and the genocide in Gaza that continues. Our government has supported rhat genocide with arms and with money since the beginning. So the Democrats and Biden are as guilty as the Trump regime in that regard.
On October 7, 2026 the media “celebrated” three years of this now expanded war and daily we continue to suffer moral injury as Congress continues to send money and weapons to Israel and the media endlessly sends us photos of a bombed-out Gaza and reports about how the people of Gaza who are left are starving. I am not saying they should not send these reports. But they drive home daily the moral injury that Gaza is as genocide, murdering a coooountry of people for their religion and culture.
On the Oct 7th anniversary of the war in Iran I watched a video from the survivors of the bombing by Hamas in Israel that started the war. They are still mourning the loss of family and friends: around 1200 killed. That is terrible. To them it is perhaps not understandable because they do not see the cause of harassment and persecution of Palestinians since at least 1978 and the yoke of settler colonialism for 100 years.
Hamas should not have bombed Israel. But the years of persecution and harassment wore on the Palestinians. So on the other side does the Hamas bombing justify the murder of thousands and thousands of Gazans? Of bombing their hospitals along with their homes? Killing healthcare workers? journalists? children?
It does not. And that too is a moral injury to see both the Democrats and Republicans in Congress go along with three years of this war and continue to send support to Israel. It is true that there is finally some movement by Congress regarding the funding, but the Trump regime is still trying to continue support for Israel’s war in the Middle East that includes the bombing of Lebanon and Syria by Israel and involvement of other Middle Eastern countries in an expansion of what has become a war that spreads farther than the closing of the Hormuz Straight to the U.S. and other countries for oil and other items for transport.
Here is an extended part of Eisenhower’s January 17, 1951 speech:
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose.
Trump and the Trump regime ignore the majority of the American people as Trump’s popularity in the polls shrinks and his personal behavior becomes more erratic. The money continues to flow to the corporate millionaires and billionaires along with Trump and his family in a betrayal of the people who suffer, getting poorer in an economy that funnels the money to an elite group of wealthy people and controlled by a neofascist government that ignores human rights and U.S. law. Their system unravels laws that promoted organizations established to protect and aid the people and to promote equality such the destruction of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Voting Act as examples that barely scratch the surface of their attempts to destroy democracy in America.
In the meantime moral injury continues in a new war in the Middle East that most Americans oppose. The endless wars that the Trump regime inherited continue in spite of his lies about bringing peace with the addition of the Iran/Middle East war. In contrast to the wars is the cutting of funding U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that provided the lead international humanitarian and development arm of the U.S. government. Funding was cut on July 1, 2025.
I need to mention, although it is well documented online, the outrageous amounts of money being granted to ICE whose members continue illegal arrests of immigrants who are then put in crowded detention centers under very poor conditions and deported. The whole system of arrest, detention, and deportation is very expensive. The laws governing immigration need to be abolished and new guidelines and laws established.
The betrayal continues.
Sources
* https://moralinjuryproject.
Some information about Moral Injury is from Amy Blumenshine.
US Judicial Failure to Uphold the Law Against Genocide: Nine Minnesotan taxpayers tell what happened when they tried taking legislative and executive branch “leaders” to court for their support of U.S. funding for Israel’s genocide.
By Minnesotan Taxpayers Against Genocide / Consortium News /September 14, 2026
