A Conscientious Objection

Miscellaneous General
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Members of the Mises Community,

Whether you are a donor, blogger, or fellow aficionado of Austrian Economics, I want to thank you and attempt to explain the huge influence that the Ludwig Von Mises Institute has had in my life. In particular, my thinking has been challenged by the audiobooks of Murray Rothbard. I have also read innumerable daily blogs, read books purchased from the online store, and listened to the lectures of Joe Salerno and Peter Klein in The Fundamentals of Economic Analysis. These and other resources have played an integral part in the crystallization of my beliefs, and as a result, I recently filed a request with the Navy to be classified as a conscientious objector and discharged. Within my lengthy application, I specifically cited the Ludwig Von Mises Institute as having provided many of the crucially important resources that influenced my thinking.

For those of you less familiar with the ways of the military, I perhaps need to clarify that I cannot leave of my own free will without facing likely imprisonment. This is why the filing of an application to be classified as a conscientious objector is necessary. It will ultimately be the Navy’s decision whether or not they classify me as such and free me from my current involuntary servitude. I readily admit to having enlisted of my own free will; however, being that my beliefs have since changed and I now wish to leave, but cannot, I believe the use of the phrase “involuntary servitude” to be appropriate.

In addition to thanking you, I wanted to make you aware that my official request to be classified as a conscientious objector is now available on my website (http://www.warisimmoral.com). In making my application public, I expect readers to gain a basic understanding of how my beliefs about war have crystallized. Even more so, as opposed to reiterating the many and frequent inquiries into the justification of a specific military engagement, I hope that my application will bring to the forefront the rarely asked question of whether or not war is moral.

I have included mises.org as a link on my own page, and I hope that you enjoy reading both my application and any of the few daily blogs that I have written to chronicle and publicize my quest for discharge. Please don’t hesitate to forward my website address to anyone you think might be interested.

If you have the opportunity, I would appreciate your feedback on my application or even my website.

Thanks again for what you have done to promote liberty.

Sincerely,

Daniel J. Lakemacher
http://www.warisimmoral.com
warisimmoral@gmail.com

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I was going to make a joke about marauding Somali pirates, but it was a terrible joke and in poor taste.

I wish you the best of luck with your ‘request’ and I really think you made the right decision. It makes me sick to my stomach that just a couple of years ago I was completely willing to join the military (omg helicopters!) and was only a couple of days from heading off to the officer training college (or whatever it was) when I bailed out, and not out of any kind of moral epiphany (personal reasons).

Kudos to everyone at mises.org (and others) for giving me (and others) a much richer moral understanding of the world.

edit: I just read your official application. It’s very moving and sincere. If anyone is worthy of CO status, you are. Incidentally I’ve been reading Rothbard’s For A New Liberty and I was just about to start on the war and foreign policy chapter when I read this.

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Keep us updated.

Also, how have your peers reacted to your decision?

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This is EASILY lewrockwell.com blog material… lol.

Send him an email.. [:)]

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Thank you for all your supportive comments, and I’m sorry for how long it has taken me to reply. This past week has been an emotional roller coaster, not from any developments in my request to be classified as a conscientious objector, but as a result of finally realizing and admitting to my own culpability for my actions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Although I’ve made a number of other posts, I ask that if you choose to read anything more from my website, please read my post, Day 9 – Reflections on GTMO.

While I definitely feel remorse for my involvement there, at the same time, I’m hopeful that my newfound understanding will allow me to be a catalyst for change. By making my beliefs as public as possible, I intend to at least prompt people to consider their unquestioned acceptance of war, or at least what the government is doing in Guantanamo Bay.

To answer the question of how my peers are responding to my request, they are either reacting in the extremes, or unaware of what it means to be a conscientious objector. At one extreme, I have received some responses to the effect of, or literally saying, “WTF,” followed by accusations that I’m acting dishonorably and at the worst, deserving of imprisonment. To the opposite extreme, a surprising number of military personnel have commented that these are my beliefs, I’m entitled to them, and I should be respected for acting on what I believe.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me or to forward this on to anyone you think might be interested.

Sincerely

Daniel J. Lakemacher
http://www.warisimmoral.com
warisimmoral@gmail.com

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I read the post on your site you linked here. It is innocent until proven guilty for that would be the human thing to do. To suppress somebody’s liberty via coercion and yet nobody knows if they actually did anything is very problematic. For instance there is a Supreme Court case going on now decision by June is expected involving an incident with a middle school female (8th grade). She was accused by another student of providing this other student with Ibuprofen in public school. No medicines allowed whatsoever unless checked in to the school authorities. So this female who was accused by another student was searched. First her school bag and pockets. Nothing on her. Next the female school nurse and female assistant to the assistant principal were asked by the school principle to strip search her. This is a female student who never had any problems in school. So she is innocent (until proven guilty), but the school took the next step to strip search her. So she had to take all her clothes off to show she didn’t have Ibuprofen hidden on her. I find this abhorrent. She never did anything and a trouble maker student accuses her of something and the principle orders she must take off all her clothes. They never found anything, but I think this is a terrible abuse of power. I mean as humans how far are we to go when somebody is innocent and shows no criminal inclinations or nothing has been proven to show they are even criminals? Should she have somebody escort her throughout school for a week or two. Call her in for daily strip searches. What about all the other students? If Ibu-400 is not on her, then somebody else, so, strip search everybody. It gets absurd. And meanwhile this girl had nothing on her and the other student lied. How humiliating. Same for GTMO did they do anything? Are we now beasts? It takes strong individuals with tremendous courage, like yourself, to step above beastly inclinations and to speak out and say, “We are human and we can reason! So let’s start acting like it.”

I thank you Daniel!![:D] This is huge. Very huge what you are doing!

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Pretty interesting, thanks.

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You’ve got my support.

I think what you’re doing is excellent and I can only wish you luck in your application to be freed. How long will you have to stay if your application is rejected?

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Thanks very much for the support.

If my request is denied, I should be transferred from Active Duty to the Inactive Reserve in July 2010. I will “serve” three years in that capacity before I will actually be freed. It’s not well-publicized, but any enlistment into the Armed Forces is for an eight year time period. The only difference between contracts is what length of Active Duty is specified at the signing. The most common enlistment being four years active, four years inactive.

I especially appreciated today’s mises.org blog about conscription. The more people understand the true nature of military “service,” the better.

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If it makes you feel any better, wars involving the Navy are highly unlikely. The Navy exists only to serve the ruling aristocracy’s military ambitions without requiring them to get their hands bloody, much like knight tournaments once did. However, they can easily kill you through simple incompetence.

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The US Navy is all volunterr these days. Why did you join it in the first place? How long have you served before you changed your mind? Did you receive any financial assistance by any chance?

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You are correct in that all members of the Navy did voluntarily sign their contracts; however, if you mean this to imply that you think it’s right for them to be involuntarily obligated to fulfill their contracts, I disagree. What other contract regards the promise of future labor, which, if not given, results in the signer being imprisoned?

As to why I joined, the following excerpt from my application to be a conscientious objector should provide an overall answer on how very different my thinking was at that time.

I enlisted in the Navy with the intent of becoming a Navy SEAL. At the time, I was a devout Evangelical Christian who firmly believed that I would not merely be justified in the eyes of God for my involvement in war but that I would in fact be pleasing him with my service. This mindset is not surprising given my upbringing. From my early childhood through my early twenties, church was the central institution in my life. My family participated in church events multiple times per week, and this continued into early adulthood when I entered Moody Bible Institute as a freshman in college. For more than twenty years, I learned about how God’s chosen people, Israel, waged innumerable just wars throughout the Middle East.
Click here for my full application

It has been four years since I began working for the Navy, and yet it wasn’t until this past year, after I returned from Guantanamo Bay, that I truly began to question the immorality of war and the basis of my employment.

During these four years I have received “financial assistance,” if by that, you mean my “Base Pay” and “Allowances” as legislated by Congress. However, if you’re implying that continuing someone’s employment under threat of imprisonment is justified so long as they are provided some means of financial remuneration, I again disagree.

In closing, let me apologize in case I have misread, what to me, were the implications of your questions. I do appreciate your comments, and the opportunity they afford to interact more about this personally important topic.

Daniel

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^ this.

It’s my understanding that this is a part of any valid contract; the ability to back out of the agreement without being imprisoned or otherwise assaulted. If I was a musician who had agreed to do an 8 month tour, and decided to back out after 6, I should be allowed to do so. Likely, I will be sued for financial losses from backing out, but having the contract does not justify my enslavement.

Best of luck, Daniel!

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Of course you shouldn’t continue doing what you now find immoral. In fact, if I was Navy HR (or whatever they’re called), I’d boot someone like you right away, because you might be dangerous in combat situations.

However, while decision is pending, you can’t talk about conscription or fighting for freedom or what not because no one forced you to join the Navy in the first place.

I also believe that in a free society (not your case, I suppose), there should be some penalty for breaking the contract, or no one will take them seriously.

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He changed his mind though, and yet, may be forced to stay. I think he has plenty of room to talk about conscription and fighting for freedom.

Convincing someone not to enlist.
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But that didn’t happen yet and he’s already claiming a higher moral ground. This is not Vietnam war era, you know.

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Natalie, he is not a criminal. He has the liberty to do as he wants without doing any criminal activity (coercing somebody else), which valid repercussions could then be the response. Him changing his mind is not forcing his will upon them, in fact, it is the opposite. They are forcing their will upon him. He has no liberty. They are violating his most essential right.

Also a human life can’t be forced into a contract for liberty and life (person) are inalienable rights and can’t be transfered in a contract. So the contract was never actually made in the first place on his liberty and life. This is the argument against slavery as well. Again, though, a criminal’s rights are dismissed when they violate another’s rights. Involuntary servitude for a criminal is just.

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Why are you putting words in my mouth? Please tell me when and where I said he’s a criminal? In fact, I definitely agree he has a right to stop serving. My issue is with his claims of higher moral gorund before any decision is even made. After all, he joined the Navy as a volunteer to become a SEAL (elite fighters, by the way) and was perfectly fine with living tax payers’ money until he changed his mind. So forgive me if I’m not viewing him as some kind of a hero fighting the system. For now, at any rate. Now, if the Navy decides to imprison him or cause all kinds of trouble, than he’ll have my full support and all that.

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Sorry, I wasn’t saying you said he was a criminal. I was using that line of reasoning to help show my explanation. I apologize if it seemed I thought you meant it that way. It was just being used as part of my explanation on this. [:)]

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I quite don’t understand what your saying in the rest of your post though.