Three US veterans testify. (If the interrogator is too Christian for you, skip to the Vietnam vet.) Also, Shministim. Utah Phillips on pacifism. A First World War Christian Conscientious Objector Remembered. [more inside]
posted by shetterly on Jan 8, 2009 - 12 comments

Ethical and religious perspectives on war and peace. While most of the discussions have focused political perspectives of the current conflict, there are quite a few ethical and religious perspectives. A BBC website provides excellent overview of the positions including the various types of pacifism and just war. For more detail there is a nice index site on Anabaptist- Mennonite nonresistance, Leon Trotsky's Marxist critique of pacifism, a secular argument for pacifism, a Christian Primer on Just War, an atheist ethical perspective, and a buddhist perspective.
posted by KirkJobSluder on Mar 24, 2003 - 2 comments

Advice for Conscientious Objectors in the Armed Forces (html version). "A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to applying for conscientious objector status. This edition....builds upon a tradition which began in 1970 with the First Edition. Advice has since reached over 40,000 military men and women who had decided that they could no longer in good conscience remain in the military. The 1970 Advice spoke to a generation troubled by the war in Vietnam. This generation of conscientious objectors, too, has seen war--most recently in the Persian Gulf, and before that in Panama. It has experienced the end of the Cold War and the flowering of hopes for peace; and it has watched as those hopes turned to disappointment in the chaotic, dangerous post-Cold War world." The G.I. Rights Hotline has recently reported they "fielded a record number of calls, mostly from military personnel and families seeking advice on conscientious-objector and other discharges."
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Mar 14, 2003 - 7 comments

On September 30th, there was a peace protest in Washington D.C. I'm surprised no one else linked to this -- about 50 students from my college attended and joined the crowd of a few thousand. I would have gone, but I'm dubious about the efficacy of public protest despite the fact that I'm an affirmed pacifist. What do you folks think? Will a totally non-military action be an appropriate response? (And is there any possiblity of the US acting in such a way?) Is the loss of a single additional human life in this new war justifiable?
posted by tweebiscuit on Oct 3, 2001 - 109 comments