Killing from the Inside Out: Moral Injury and Just War

Armies know all about killing. It is what they do and ours does it more effectively than most. We are painfully coming to realize however that we are also especially good at killing our own from the inside out silently invisibly. In every major war since Korea more of our veterans have taken their lives than have lost them in combat. The latest research rooted in veteran testimony reveals that the most severe and intractable PTSD--fraught with shame despair and suicide--stems from moral injury. But how can there be rampant moral injury in what our military our government our churches and most everyone else call just wars? At the root of our incomprehension lies just war theory--developed expanded and updated across the centuries to accommodate the evolution of warfare its weaponry its scale and its victims. Any serious critique of war as well any true attempt to understand the profound invisible wounds it inflicts will be undermined from the outset by the unthinking and all-but-universal acceptance of just war doctrine. Killing from the Inside Out radically questions that theory examines its legacy and challenges us to look beyond it beyond just war. Endorsements for the cover: Elegantly written and easily accessible to lay readers--his prose unburdened by any military jargon or acronym-soup--Killing From the Inside Out is an ideal read for anyone curious about American adventurism abroad the future of civil-military relations and the human--and moral--toll of war. --Lionel Beehner founding editor of Cicero Magazine and member of the Council on Foreign Relations New York City NY Meagher has written the essential rebuttal to Just War theory. This book should be read by scholars warriors clergy politicians and anyone caring for those suffering from moral injury related to military service. --Kimberly P. May MD Col (retired) USAF and the Veterans Administration Leeds MA Bob Meaghers seminal and timely work with its reach from antiquity to today shows that there never was a just war that would leave its participants unscarred. --Rev. Michael Lapsley director the Institute for Healing Memories Cape Town South Africa I found this book gripping illuminating and prophetic. In a so-called civilized world where we continue to accept all too easily the killing of innocents in war and the sometimes devastating long-term impact on those young people we send into battle to kill on our behalf it is utterly timely. --Rev. Ruth Scott BBC broadcaster international mediator London UK Meagher combines his own practical wisdom from many years of working with combat veterans with decades of high quality scholarship. As a reflective practitioner I strongly recommend this book to anyone truly interested in transforming the human cost of war. --Wilhelm Verwoerd international peace and reconciliation worker Beyond Walls Cape Town Area South Africa Another fundamental truth this bold beautifully written and erudite work powerfully conveys is the following: war kills not only those it buries in the ground; it just as surely kills those souls who march home heads held high while the music plays and their loved ones cheer yet feeling inside they are forever lost. --Lieutenant Colonel Douglas A. Pryer US Army Intelligence the Pentagon USA Killing wounds the soul. But what if its a just war? Meagher argues convincingly that to put the adjective just in front of the word war is self-deception. --Jim Forest co-founder the Orthodox Peace Fellowship South Bend IN This is a thoughtful timely and needed book. . . . Read this book. Then ponder it. Then act on it. It just might save a soul--your soul. --Thomas C. Fox publisher of the National Catholic Reporter For front matter: For more than 10 years I have been working with former combatants in different parts of the world grappling with the profound human cost of their invo