Military ethics and well-being: a soldier’s journey

Abstract

In light of emerging research on moral injuries, this article explores the impact of soldiers’ indoctrination on their identity after they have lived through the experience of war. The injuries that soldiers live and witness can act as a source of motivation to carry on in intensive combat, but are often internalized indefinitely, even after their return to the regiment. A discourse analysis will demonstrate the process by which the actors are able to overcome the moral combat and will discuss the conditions that are essential to efficient healing. Ultimately this article aims to illustrate how soldiers can free themselves from the reflexes and, more importantly, from the moral values that kept them alive on the battlefield but that are in contradiction with the moral values of the society in which they are trying to reintegrate themselves.