A Final Word

As you think about conscientious objection, keep in mind the obvious: Nobody is asking you to fight in battles like Waterloo. War today is modern war, with all that implies. It's unlikely that the world will abolish all modern weapons and tactics. If the nations could agree to that, they probably could also agree to abolish war itself.

Just as nobody is asking you to fight in an 18th-Century army, so nobody is asking you to fight in a war in which nobody is killed or wounded. Such a war may be the dream of military theorists, but in the real world, military planners assume that soldiers and civilians will be killed and wounded when the shooting starts.

In the real world, modern armies have caused untold destruction. Since World War II, over 35 million people have died in "conventional" wars. Can you be part of this kind of killing and destruction? That's the real question for you to decide.

Go to next page