About This Site

The goal of this site is to become a repository of material to assist you in thinking through the underlying issues related to pacifism, militarism, and conscience.

We intend this to be a broadly-based participatory site. We invite you to submit essays, articles, and personal stories if you have thought deeply on these issues and/or have had experiences you would like to share.

There are excellent resources on the web covering practical, legal, and a wide variety of other issues related to conscientious objection. These include:

Writings/Media Archived on this Site

Other Articles/Resources
(on the web and elsewhere)

  • The Press and the Myths of War by Chris Hedges — A deeply thoughtful and articulate account of the realities of war from the vantage point of an experienced war correspondent.
    “For war, when we confront it truthfully, exposes the darkness within all of us. This darkness shatters the illusions many of us hold not only about the human race but about ourselves. Few of us confront our own capacity for evil, but this is especially true in wartime. And even those who engage in combat are afterward given cups from the River Lethe to forget. And with each swallow they imbibe the myth of war. For the myth makes war palatable. It gives war a logic and sanctity it does not possess. It saves us from peering into the darkest recesses of our own hearts.”
  • Wars Currently in Progress (There are more than you think!)
  • Just War Theory — from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • The Catholic Church, in its great diversity, supports a significant peace movement through the Catholic Peace Fellowship and Pax Christi. The Catholic Peace Fellowship actively supports conscientious objectors. Its web site has much that would be of interest even to non-Catholics. Individual parishes support conscientious objector to varying degrees.
  • Talk World Radio: Charles Lenchner on Refusing Military “Service”.  Interview of a former Israeli soldier who refused to be deployed against the occupied Palestinian population.
  • It’s immoral to serve in an immoral military, by Caitlin Johnstone

Consciousness-raising videos

  • Sir! No Sir! — (See also Amazon.com and elsewhere) Did you know that one of the biggest antiwar movements during the Vietnam era was going on within the military itself? Probably not, if your source of information was the mainstream media. This documentary resurrects a piece of history that has been buried for years. (Now available to view online on YouTube and Netflix)
  • The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight it. — (See also Amazon.com). The Second World War was a hard war to oppose as a Conscientious Objector. It was widely supported and considered to be a “Good War.” It was also one of the bloodiest wars on record, killing over 60 million people worldwide. This is an excellent survey of the range of beliefs and actions of Conscientious Objectors and their impact on society in the years following the war.
  • Hearts and Minds — (See also Amazon.com and elsewhere) This film won an Academy Award in 1974 for Best Documentary Feature. It is a remarkable account of the Vietnam war. The viewer reviews on Amazon help convey the power of the film, short of seeing it oneself.
  • Winter Soldier — (See also Amazon.com and elsewhere) This is a documentary about the Winter Soldier Investigation, conducted in 1971 by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, to publicize the extent of atrocities committed by US troops in Vietnam. The film, which features interviews with soldiers telling about their personal experiences in Vietnam, is powerful, emotional, and graphic.
  • A hearing on Conscientious Objection and Military Recruitment hosted by congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, with presentations by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the American Friends Service Committee, and other groups dealing with these issues.

Antiwar Links Dealing with Current Events

  • Antiwar.com “Antiwar news, viewpoints, and activities”
  • War Times A newspaper devoted to war-related news.
  • A Just Cause, Not a Just War, by Howard Zinn
  • Voices for Creative Nonviolence: “We recognize that for years now the U.S. has stood on the precipice of all out devastation-of itself and of the world. We look to history as a guide-and try to learn lessons from those who preceded us in far more dire circumstances, who somehow found the ability to form communities of resistance to oppression in Nazi Germany, in apartheid South Africa, in the Jim Crow South of the U.S. and in the super segregated cities of the North.”

Other Links

Please contact us if you have other resources that might be added to this site.
Web site designed and maintained by David Chandler