Benjamin Sledge
1 min readJul 4, 2016

That’s a great question. I haven’t studied anything in which research suggests that. Much of the research has been focused around veterans specifically. I would say it depends on the situation. Many Vietnamese villagers and soldiers who were involved in the Vietnam War don’t have PTSD or symptoms of moral injury. In the interviews I’ve read, many Vietnamese share that they felt they were fighting for their homeland so there was nothing to be ashamed of. Invaders came, they fought them back, invaders left. My thought is that moral injury for civilians would have a lot to do with certain situations and perspectives. Imagine the Chinese Army invades Texas and begin to oppress them and there are rampant cases of rape. Texans naturally revolt and move towards guerilla tactics and use IEDs to help dismantle the enemy. They discover that by using women and children to plant the devices there’s less suspicion and more success. Do the women and children suffer from moral injury after watching the very enemies that oppressed and rape them die? It’s an interesting question I don’t know the answer to. However, put yourself in the Chinese soldier’s shoes who sees a young child carrying an IED and has to shoot her. Then, I’d say you’re more apt to have a case for moral injury. I apologize in advance because I believe I’ve answered your question with another question! I guess time will tell in the end.

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Benjamin Sledge

Multi-award winning author | Combat wounded veteran | Mental health specialist | Occasional geopolitical intel | Graphic designer | https://benjaminsledge.com