Self-Defense

One common question asked by Investigating Officers, chaplains, friends, and neighbors, is this: What would you do if someone attacked your mother (or sister or yourself)? If you answer that you would use force to defend the person attacked, the person who asked the question may conclude that you don't really object to war.

That's not true. A Court of Appeals decision in the early 1970s stated that:

"Agreement that force can be used to restrain wrongdoing, especially as the last alternative, has little bearing on an attitude toward war." 1

That's still what the law says. You don't have to object to personal self-defense, or defense of your loved ones, to qualify as a conscientious objector. And you can't really say what you would do. A person who says he or she would use force in self-defense may find that a nonviolent response makes more sense in actual practice. And a person who favors a nonviolent response may respond violently in practice.

One thing you can be certain of, though. If you or someone you loved were attacked, you wouldn't dig a trench around the attacker's house, bombard them with artillery fire, drop napalm on their family, and demand their unconditional surrender--if they survived. That's the point. Personal self-defense is not war. In fact, it doesn't resemble war in any way.

Go to next page