Selective and Non-Selective
Military regulations define a CO as someone with a firm, fixed and sincere objection to participation in war in any form or to the bearing of arms, by reason of religious training and belief. The key language here is "war in any form." If there is a current or likely war in which you know you would be willing to take part, then you are a selective objector. You do not qualify for legal recognition as a CO.
While this may seem a clear-cut rule, the line between a legally recognized CO and a selective objector is hazy. You may be willing to fight in some "wars," yet still qualify for legal CO status. Before you conclude that you're a selective objector, read the rest of this chapter. Maybe you do fit under the law after all.
Past and Future Wars
In deciding whether you would fight in any wars, you don't have to put yourself in a time machine and decide what you would have done many years ago or what you will do many years in the future. One question that is often asked of CO applicants is whether they would have fought in World War II. If your answer to this question were "yes," the military would probably deny your claim unless you could show that the situation now and the situation in World War II were completely different (see "Just and Unjust Wars," below, and "Hitler and Other Dictators" later in this book).
On the other hand, if you were not certain what you would have done at that time because you can speak only for the person you are here and now, you can still qualify as a CO. That's also true for wars in the distant future. In Gillette v US, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the military regulations which denied CO status to selective objectors. However, the Gillette case distinguished between people who knew that they would fight in some wars and people who couldn't swear that their beliefs would never change. Speaking of the second group, the Court said:
Unwillingness to deny the possibility of a change of mind, in some hypothetical future circumstances, may be no more than humble good sense, casting no doubt on the claimant's present sincerity of belief.
So if you don't know what you would do in the future, you can still qualify as a conscientious objector.
Other Hypothetical Wars
Would you fight if the world were invaded by forces of evil from outer space? Somebody in the military might ask you this, but you don't need to have an answer. You don't have to know what you would do in wars you think are impossible--or in wars you would never be called upon to serve in. If you don't have an answer, you can say so. That's true also for realistic wars. For instance, you can't know what you would think if you had lived in South Africa under apartheid, so you can't know whether you would fight in those circumstances. If somebody asks you, it's all right to say you don't know. The real issue is whether you would take part in any war you could actually be called upon to fight.
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