Conscientious Objection...do you approve or not? and when?

[wickerwoman]

12. But the problem with saying

you can only be a conscientious objector if you never pick up a gun in your life is that it misses the distinction between different kinds of conflicts.

Let's say you're 18 and you get drafted for an Iraq type scenario and you refuse to go because it's obviously a bullshit war. And then let's say you're in your 30s and Canada attacks (the sneaky devils) and you need to defend your home town from a legion of Mounties. Would you then be open to prosectuion for draft evasion because you refused to fight in the bullshit war earlier?

Situations change and peoples' views evolve. Most people don't have the same view of war at 18 that they do at 30.

I don't believe in the draft/national service because I don't think the state has the right to compulsorily require physical labour from its citizens. And I don't think we should be fighting any war that the state can't sell to its own citizens/soldiery.

We should be encouraging people not to check their brains and consciences at the door of the recruitment station. And someone who has been traumatized by combat and has changed their views about it should not be forced into continuing because they signed on the dotted line when they were still basically a kid.