I was a Viet Nam War era Catholic conscientious objector. I have already been called a coward more than once. For me, it was just after the draft lottery, and I had a low number for being called up to serve. I believe I was speaking to a mostly Catholic draft board, who were questioning me about my beliefs. I told them I could not take an order to shoot old men, women, and children, like at My Lai.
Personally, I recognized within myself exactly the ability to do just that, impersonally shoot all those people. After My Lai, there were almost a thousand more massacres reported in the army. But, I based my CO on my beliefs (12 years of Catholic school.)
In the spirituality forum, I think I started a thread on the book War and the Soul by Edward Tick, PhD about the lingering aftereffects of PTSD on combat veterans – based on their horror over seeing so much death and carnage, killing as much as they did.
Tick cites some statistics for the Viet Nam war, that whereas the US has almost 59,000 combat deaths, the Vietnamese had 2.5 million deaths. More US vets have committed suicide (100k+) since that war than died in combat during the war.
The Church is recognizing more that individuals may need to take this action, of conscientious objection, based on the immediate circumstances they are faced with.
A lot of my high school classmates were drafted and served in Viet Nam.
