I don't it's cowardly to not participate in military activity. I personally don't believe it is within my moral boundaries to learn to aim weapons at human beings. Ever since I was three I can remember my dad ALWAYS telling me when I had a toy gun, "NEVER, EVER EVER point that at a PERSON or I will break it and never buy you another one."

And he was right, I pointed a toy gun at someone in my family, and sure enough he broke it in two and handed it back to me. He did end up buying another one, but not until Christmas which was many months later. I understood what he meant, that we are not within our moral boundaries when we threaten the lives of others.

I know that there are evil people who will kill us, at least that's what I've been told. I'm 29 and I realize that's not an exceptional amount of time to have lived but so far I have done lots of traveling, seen some rough ghettos, and have never had my life endangered by another person. I attribute this to the fact that I have never and will never do anything to threaten anyone else, and people sense that when they meet me.

I object to being called a coward, and I think that our enemies have a similar set of beliefs about our willingness to kill them and their families. I think they also are told that if they won't fight for their country/creed/culture that they are cowards.

And how about Sergeant York? He was by no means a coward. He put his life in danger with all the rest. Some pacifists are cowards, and some soldiers are murderers, but all pacifists are not sheep, and all soldiers are not wolves.

Why do the people advising this guy to join the service frame it as a moral issue, that it's good to serve, and wrong or cowardly not to? We all have reasons for the choices we make, and those reasons may not be known by others.

I would never make a claim that those who have served in our forces did so because they are bloodthirsty and like to burn down the huts of innocent villagers. That would be ludicrous, wouldn't it? So why am I hearing the reverse claim from the other side?