Abraham Lincoln, self-taught in biblical theology, got right the Christian approach to war’s ending. He concluded his second inaugural address with these words:
With malice toward none, with charity for all . . . let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Political leaders and citizens alike should take Lincoln’s words to heart. On the centenary of the end of World War I, he identifies, phrase by phrase, an agenda incumbent on us all: nations, politicians, veterans and citizens. On this Veterans’ Day, however, I suggest we should attend to one phrase in particular: “to care for him who will have borne the battle.” I’d like to talk about what we owe wounded, disabled, and soul-damaged veterans.
Beginning with the wars in the Balkans and especially after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, there was a great deal of discussion of justice after war, jus post-bellum. One author considered What We Owe Iraq. Much less often do we ask, “What do we owe our veterans, those who have borne the battle for us, whether or not the decisions that sent them to war were wise or just?”In one administration after another, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been unable to meet the health and rehabilitation needs of our veterans. On the streets, veterans count for a huge part of the homeless. Awareness of the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), by professionals and the public, grows year by year. We find funds to build weapons, but not to heal the wounded.
With repeat deployments of a volunteer military in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number affected by PTSD grows. In addition, psychiatrists are discovering profound damage to the souls of warriors in these unending wars, in what they term “moral injury,” that is, the experience of crippling guilt for acts of war for which society does not hold them culpable.
The public and politicians owe the military much more than pieties at sporting events and courtesy at airports. We owe them wisdom and justice in their deployments. And, above all, we owe them our full support and care in illness and disability. As Lincoln so well understood, care for the wounded warrior stands at the heart of a nation’s duty for post-war justice. As we continue, let us pray for suffering veterans, and let us resolve to do for them what justice requires.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This was first offered as a homily during midday Mass in Georgetown's Dahlgren Chapel.
