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Demoralization is, in a context of warfare, national security, and law enforcement, a process in psychological warfare with the objective to erode morale among enemy combatants and/or noncombatants. That can encourage them to retreat, surrender, or defect rather than defeating them in combat.
A moral injury is an injury to an individual's moral conscience and values resulting from an act of perceived moral transgression on the part of themselves or others. [1] It produces profound feelings of guilt or shame, [1] moral disorientation, and societal alienation. [2]
Military morale is in a large sense inseparable from civilian morale because each reacts upon the other and both are in large measure based on fidelity to a cause. But there is a certain kind of morale that is distinctly military. It begins with the soldier's attitude toward duty. It develops with the soldier's command over himself.
But in war, asking troops to meet the ideals and values they carry into battle – always be honorable, always be courageous, always treat civilians with respect, never harm a non-combatant – may itself cause moral injury when these ideals collide with the reality of combat. Accomplishing the mission may mean placing innocent civilians at risk.
Some troops leave the battlefield injured. Others return from war with mental wounds. Yet many of the 2 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from a condition the Defense Department refuses to acknowledge: Moral injury.
War-weariness normally leads to a distrust in government or military leadership and can spark protest and anti-war movements. It can also be fueled when a belligerent is found guilty of war crimes, which can create domestic and international backlash. Rates of enlistment and the morale of the armed-forces are often affected by war-weariness.
The BBC visits a key city under attack by Russia and finds eroded morale among its few remaining residents. Fighting Russia - and low morale - on Ukraine's ‘most dangerous front line’ Skip to ...
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