Soldiers in combat can kill without moral injury

Summary

Killing another person is not necessarily harmful to a soldier's mental health — in fact, the impacts on wellbeing depend more on the context than on the act itself. At least, this is the conclusion of a large-scale study of Norwegian soldiers, led by Andreas Espetvedt Nordstrand of Institute of Military Psychiatry, Norwegian Armed Forces, Norway. These findings contradict the commonly-held idea that killing is an 'unnatural' act for humans that inevitably inflicts a moral injury on the individual, the researchers write in Armed Forces and Society.The team studied two different samples of Norwegian soldiers. The first consisted of 4,053 who had been deployed to Afghanistan between December 2001 and December 2011. These soldiers took part in NATO-led combat-oriented missions, with the aim of fighting to defeat the enemy.The second sample was very different. These 10,605 soldiers were sent to Lebanon to act as peacekeepers, some time between 1978 and 1998. The main objective of this UN-led peacekeeping mission was not to engage or defeat an enemy, but to maintain order. In contrast to the rules of engagement for the soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, they were told that deadly force should be used only as a last resort, and only for self-defence.The participants completed a series of questionnaires. They reported on whether they had taken a life in combat, or believed that they had killed someone in combat. They also answered questions about other types of stressful events, including whether they had witnessed someone else being killed or injured. Both groups also completed surveys that assessed various psychological symptoms.When the team analysed the results, they found some clear differences between the two groups. Peacekeepers who had killed someone during their deployment had higher levels of PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and alcohol use, as well as a lower quality of life, compared with peacekeepers who had not killed anyone.For the group that had served in...