A Case for Conscientious Objection

by Andrew Young

In George W. Bush's America , few are willing to call themselves
conscientious objectors. Often, when I tell someone I am one, they ask how
I could oppose any resort to war. The answer is less complex than one might
think. In fact, my objection to war rests mostly on principles upon which
most Americans agree. Americans who believe in the sanctity of human life
and that it should only be taken when the full reason has been disclosed
should tolerate, if not adopt, conscientious objection.

Unlike most, I reject just war doctrine. War kills civilians and forces
young men who might be friends under normal circumstances to kill each
other. I think most of us can agree that, for these reasons and others, war
is an atrocity. I would venture to say that most would also agree that, if
war must be undertaken, the public and those who fight must know exactly why
they are killing.

But this is never the case. Governments lie about reasons for war. For
example, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld claimed to be
invading Iraq to liberate the Iraqi people, but a review of their careers
suggests they cared little about human rights. In a 2000 debate with Al
Gore, George W. Bush praised the Clinton administration for not pursuing a
humanitarian intervention in Rwanda . During the 1990s, while CEO of
Halliburton, Dick Cheney lobbied against sanctions on countries that violate
human rights. Not surprisingly, Halliburton wanted to do business with
these nations. The Project for a New American Century, a group to which
Cheney belongs, argued that America should attack Iraq to begin a "Pax
Americana," in which America will maintain hegemony by controlling oil
supplies. Curiously, the Bush administration never told Americans about
this motive for war. After September 11, Donald Rumsfeld supported an
attack on Iraq not because he believed Saddam Hussein was involved in the
9/11 attacks, but because there were "more targets" in Iraq than Afghanistan
.

Most consider World War II the very definition of a just war, but America 's
entry into it involved lies as well. Franklin Roosevelt wanted us involved,
but the American people did not, so he resorted to manipulation to bring us
into the war. Even Henry Kissinger, a fan of FDR, concedes this in his book
Diplomacy. Kissinger writes that FDR's methods were "devious in tactic,"
and, most importantly, "less than frank in explaining the intricacies of
particular events."

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