The article yesterday in @TheAtlantic still hurts. Mainly because I knew the coming refutations from @realDonaldTrump would deny, deflect, or distract from the meanings behind his statements. I believe that it can be helpful if we look at this from a veterans perspective. 1/

The military psychology literature lists six different psychological effects of combat experience: moral injury by self/others, traumatic loss, life threat to self/others, and aftermath of violence. 2/

My dissertation goes into more explanation for what each of these mean for veterans with combat experience and how it affects (specifically) their political behavior. However, I want to focus on one outcome specifically: guilt. 3/

Guilt is often a byproduct of experiencing combat for service members. Guilt is often connected to feelings of regret, remorse, and repentance. Opp and Samson (1989) list 5 different types of guilt: survivors, demonic, moral/spiritual, betrayal/abandonment, and superman/woman 4/

Survivor’s Guilt is when a service member witnesses the death of someone who is close to them (either by proximity or has a relationship). What causes this guilt is the immediate feeling of joy that “it wasn’t me that died.” 5/

That feeling of joy fades quickly when the service member identifies that what they were joyful about resulted in the death of (normally) a fellow service member. 6/

Demonic Guilt is brought on by witnessing or experiencing warfare. Which is the very function that military members train in which to take part. The guilt can become even worse if the service member experiences some sort of joy or power from engaging in this type of act. 7/

This type of guilt can also change the way that the service member views others. Specifically, acknowledging the devil that may lay dormant in others. Which may lead to distrust and disdain in others. 8/

Moral/Spiritual Guilt is present when there is a violation of “normal” human expectations on the sanctity of life. This type of guilt runs counter to any moral conditioning that individuals are taught as they are growing up. 9/

This can eventually lead to disassociation with society because they see themselves as “unclean” and unable to integrate back into society due to actions committed while in the service to one’s country. 10/

Betrayal/Abandonment Guilt is the guilt that a service member feels due to the belief that they did not do enough to help/protect their fellow service members while in combat. 11/

Much like some of the other forms of guilt, service members feel like they have let down their fellow military members by not giving everything that they could. 12/

Superman/Superwoman Guilt is where members feel as though they have developed powers or abilities that allow them to survive and they were unable to use these powers to save others. 13/

Again it is a failure that they are experiencing because they truly believe that they could have done more to save the lives of their fellow service members in battle. 14/

I lay this all out because when the President says that those who didn’t make it home or are disfigured – due to actions undertaken in service to one’s country, it isn’t just those individuals he is attacking. 15/

There are officers and enlisted personnel who were in battle with those who died that still hold the guilt of those deaths on their conscience. 16/

It’s that same guilt of those they think that they let down, that military veterans have in their mind when people say #TYFYS When sights, smells, sounds, and fleeting memories cross their minds to bring them back to the guilt they associated with their time in the service. 17/

So it’s not only those who have perished that the President insulted. He insulted the families of the fallen, service members with their own guilt over the deaths of friends, and the political leaders who put members of the military in harm’s way. 18/

I can’t believe that I have to type this, but those who died in battle aren’t losers or suckers. They did what they could to preserve our way of life. 19/

Using original survey data, my dissertation shows that those service members who returned home, there is a veterans social identity that members of the military identify with. Those with combat experience are more likely to identify more strongly with this veteran identity. 20/

I also show that combat experience (and the guilt/regret associated with it) leads to less hawkish foreign policy attitudes among military members. If you would like to read this paper @SSQ_Online you can find it here https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12796 21/

Lastly, my final chapter shows that military members expect to experience combat and when they do they have more trust in government than military members without combat experience. I also find similar findings of trust in government among military members using ANES data. 22/

There’s a lot more I can comment about but I’ll stop here for now. If you’d like to know more about my research, please reach out. I’m on the job market and love talking about veterans and my measures of combat! /end