The Chicago Tribune revisited the issue of “moral injury” in returning US combat veterans.  The term is distinct from PTSD and is defined in the article as

the soul-scarring mental condition described by experts as “moral injury,” or the internal conflict a soldier can experience after participating in wartime atrocities that contradict personal values.

Other groups have similarly tried to recruit and train churches to help these veterans, as they feel they’re more likely to open up to a religious leader than someone in their chain of command.  Said a chaplain: 

“They are on a faith mission,” said Maj. Peter Strong, a chaplain with the U.S. Army Reserve, describing soldiers who come to him for help. Strong is one of the founders of Military Outreach USA, a Christian-based organization in Libertyville.

“If they come to your church, they’re not looking for a set of rules and regulations. They are looking for a God who can forgive them for the things they’ve done,” Strong said.

Rabbi Harold Robinson helped explain the concept of “moral injury,” and essentially noted that it would be surprising if returning veterans who experienced combat did not experience it to some degree:

Rabbi Harold Robinson, director of the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council in New York, said that it is hard to imagine that any 20-year-old veteran would be able to return to civilian society without internal struggles.

“On the one hand, you have this sense of having done your duty,” he said, “and on the other hand, you have been involved in horrific events that, deep down inside you, you know humanity is not supposed to be like.

“How do you add in, ‘How did I come home safer than anybody else? Did I let somebody down?’ It’s just a huge morass of emotions,” said Robinson, who recruits rabbis to serve in the armed forces and to work with veterans.

The article also cites the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School, which is “researching” moral injury.

ADVERTISEMENT