Paul D. Eaton
The most critical part in warrior development is what we call the moral component—the set of beliefs that allows the soldier to trust his chain of command and his mate, and to do what warriors must do. We do that brilliantly in America, up to the point the trigger is pulled. What David Wood has produced here in a gripping, superb storytelling manner, is the analysis of the aftermath of the trigger pull, and how we must improve how we as a society help the warrior return to peace.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette
It's not often that a war correspondent reveals the darker consequences of military service... Mr. Wood has detailed their suffering in soul-numbing detail. Read his words and grieve.
Lt. Col. Kevin Petit
What Have We Done is a landmark effort. Extraordinary work and exceptional treatment of a strange, damaging phenomenon. We cannot begin to solve the problem until it’s properly identified. Perhaps now we can begin to heal. Bravo!”
David Martin
David Wood makes other reporters smack their foreheads and ask themselves why they didn’t do that story. It was sitting right there in front of you and you didn’t see it until David put it all together.”
author of The Generals Thomas E. Ricks
David Wood is a treasure—a defense reporter who is both knowledgeable and morally perceptive. Plus, he can write. Read this and you will learn about our soldiers, our wars, and even the times in which we live. If I could, every time I heard someone thank someone else ‘for their service,’ I’d give both parties a copy of this book.”
Admiral Mike Mullen
Wood has brilliantly articulated the harsh and lasting realities of the moral injury from Iraq and Afghanistan for so many who fought and served honorably. He uses his own, vivid memories of war, and the haunting memories of those who fought our wars to 'pressurize the soul' of America, urging all of us to deal with this almost universally ignored injury of the heart and soul. Heartbreaking and compelling!
LTC Kevin Petit
What Have We Done is a landmark effort. Extraordinary work, and exceptional treatment of a strange, damaging phenomenon. We cannot begin to solve the problem until it's properly identified. Perhaps now we can begin to heal. Bravo!
Jonathan Shay
David Wood is the best of the best. He gets out in the dust and mud and danger with the troops, and they revere him—which I know from them directly. Tissues at the ready! You will weep.
Brett T. Litz
This is a rare achievement. It is highly personal, emotionally charged, comprehensive, provocative and evocative, and, thus, educational. I see this as a must read for students and clinicians.
author of Fiasco and The Generals Thomas E. Ricks
David Wood is a treasure—a defense reporter who is both knowledgeable and morally perceptive. Plus, he can write. Read this and you will learn about our soldiers, our wars, and even the times in which we live. If I could, every time I heard someone thank someone else 'for their service,' I'd give both parties a copy of this book.
Edward Tick
With What Have We Done David Wood has written what may be one of the best, most riveting and accessible presentations on moral injury and how it differs from Post traumatic Stress Disorder…David Wood is a major voice moving moral, ethical, and spiritual dimensions front and center in understanding and helping our warriors.”
From the Publisher
"With What Have We Done David Wood has written what may be one of the best, most riveting and accessible presentations on moral injury and how it differs from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)....David Wood is a major voice moving moral, ethical and spiritual dimensions front and center in understanding and helping our warriors."—Edward Tick, PhD, author of War and the Soul and Warrior's Return, co-founder and director of Soldier's Heart, Inc.
"David Wood makes other reporters smack their foreheads and ask themselves why they didn't do that story. It was sitting right there in front of you and you didn't see it until David put it all together."—David Martin, national security correspondent, CBS News
"What Have We Done is a landmark effort. Extraordinary work, and exceptional treatment of a strange, damaging phenomenon. We cannot begin to solve the problem until it's properly identified. Perhaps now we can begin to heal. Bravo!"
—LTC Kevin Petit, U.S. Army (ret), veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan
"David Wood is a treasure—a defense reporter who is both knowledgeable and morally perceptive. Plus, he can write. Read this and you will learn about our soldiers, our wars, and even the times in which we live. If I could, every time I heard someone thank someone else 'for their service,' I'd give both parties a copy of this book."
—Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco and The Generals
"The most critical part in warrior development is what we call the moral component—the set of beliefs that allows the soldier to trust his chain of command and his mate, and to do what warriors must do. We do that brilliantly in America, up to the point the trigger is pulled. What David Wood has produced here in a gripping, superb storytelling manner, is the analysis of the aftermath of the trigger pull, and how we must improve how we as a society help the warrior return to peace."—Paul D. Eaton, Major General, US Army (retired)
"Wood has brilliantly articulated the harsh and lasting realities of the moral injury from Iraq and Afghanistan for so many who fought and served honorably. He uses his own, vivid memories of war, and the haunting memories of those who fought our wars to 'pressurize the soul' of America, urging all of us to deal with this almost universally ignored injury of the heart and soul. Heartbreaking and compelling!"
—Admiral Mike Mullen, 17th Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2007-2011
"David Wood is the best of the best. He gets out in the dust and mud and danger with the troops, and they revere him—which I know from them directly. Tissues at the ready! You will weep."
—Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD, author of Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America
"This is a rare achievement. It is highly personal, emotionally charged, comprehensive, provocative and evocative, and, thus, educational. I see this as a must read for students and clinicians."—Brett T. Litz, PhD, clinical psychologist, VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
"It's not often that a war correspondent reveals the darker consequences of military service... Mr. Wood has detailed their suffering in soul-numbing detail. Read his words and grieve."—The Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette
Kirkus Reviews
2016-10-05
A wide-ranging study of the moral costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, costs that are certain to carry over into future conflicts—to say nothing of civilian life.“The army trained you to fight. It did not train you for psychological shock.” So said a military veteran to Pulitzer Prize–winning Huffington Post correspondent Wood. The author examines a range of related problems, both abstract and concrete, wrought by wars waged against largely unseen, unknowable enemies—with the result that, too often, the foe becomes a preteen with a Kalashnikov. An overarching malady is “moral rot,” which one West Point military ethicist holds to be the logical result of cynicism and corruption at the top, manifested infamously by the Abu Ghraib prison case, less openly by such things as escalating rates of military suicide, mental illness, divorce, and other woes. While field soldiers were “struggling to apply their moral codes to the chaos of combat,” writes Wood, “those above them were blatantly violating the military’s own moral code of values, both to accomplish their mission and for their own career advancement.” Whether career soldiers or single-hitch enlistees, many warriors returning from the fight are afflicted by what is informally called “war trauma,” a cousin of but unlike the better-known PTSD—though it shares with PTSD the resistance of those in the hierarchy to admit such a thing exists in the first place. As Wood notes, Jonathan Shay, a clinical psychiatrist, prefers to call this category of illness “moral injury” rather than disorder, because it places the onus on the afflicted rather than on the agency of being called on to behave unjustly in war and must bear the burden. Killing, even justifiable, exacts a toll on the perpetrator as well as the victim; as one soldier told the author, meaningfully, “you know, I’m not a psychopath.” The psychological and moral aspects of war and trauma are not well-understood, and Wood’s book is a welcome contribution to the field. A good complement to David Finkel’s Thank You for Your Service (2013).
