Atonement

On the night of February 12, 2009, an Australian 1 Commando Regiment team, including a number of Afghan National Army personnel and Afghan interpreters, headed towards the village of Sorkh Morghab in Uruzgan Province to search for Taliban leaders. Upon arriving at the compound, they discovered no Taliban personnel in location and were ordered to move to a second compound where intelligence had also identified Taliban activity.

At this point, the 1 Commando team were engaged by the Taliban. Afghan interpreters called on them to cease fire, but the Australian soldiers subsequently returned fire with rifles and a grenade. When the enemy firing ceased, they realised there were not only a number of dead Taliban fighters in the room, but there were also women and children. Three children were dead and several badly injured. Two babies who were evacuated for medical treatment did not survive, taking the death toll to five children.

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Two Australian soldiers were charged with manslaughter as a result. One of the soldiers would later go on to tell the ABC’s Australian Story program:

From the moment I realised there were dead children, I was horrified, numb, just struggling to grasp. When you realise you’ve killed children, devastating doesn’t even begin to describe it, and I feel like I can’t fix it and I can’t atone for it. I can’t do anything to undo the damage that was done. (Grasswill & Davis, 2016)

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Atone is an interesting word to use in the present context. The soldier is acknowledging their responsibility for the incident and their inability and frustration with being unable to remediate or “fix” what has happened. Although the particular soldier’s spiritual beliefs are unknown, it is not unreasonable to infer that the soldier is appealing to some greater power or entity for help to attain forgiveness. The veracity of the inference is confirmed by the choice of the word “atone.” To atone is to “make amends or reparation,” and is often used in the context of atonement for sin(s). (Oxford Dictionary, n.d.)

When soldiers leave the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and transition into civilian life, they will join a total veteran population in Australia which is estimated at just over 614,000 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2018.). Australia’s veteran population reaches back as far as the Second World War. How many of these veterans have been placed in a situation where they have had to kill in war is unknown. However, their spiritual care falls to Faith Practitioners (authorised or accredited Ministers, Rabbis, Pastors, Priests, etc.) across the broader civilian community. In many cases (and with great respect), it is unlikely that many of these practitioners will have a deep understanding of the cultural or spiritual needs of the veteran population. This is particularly true regarding the issue of killing in war.

In order to help these practitioners in their work with veterans, the approach of this paper is to identify the spiritual implications for veterans who kill in war. Sadly, it will be necessary to develop some understanding of the nature of killing in war and the particular circumstances of those that kill. Initially, this paper takes on a brief literature review of some of the key material published on this topic. The overall aim being to identify the key features of killing in war. In particular, that killing is not an isolated act involving one person but rather part of a Kill Chain. How and where personnel are placed along the chain will substantially shape the depth and nature of their spiritual need. Discussions regarding spiritual need will be set within a largely Christian approach and against the framework of earlier work on Spiritual Injuries (SI). The argument is aimed squarely at creating a list of spiritual implications and a redemptive process that both veterans and their supporters can use to help find peace (Davies, 2020). This is a critical issue for veterans and their supporters as SI can be a significant cause of distress and become a major contributor to mental health issues and have negative effects on their overall well-being.

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