Conscientious Objection

Below is a page from the revised military policy on Conscientious Objection outlining those things that will disqualify you from obtaining Conscientious Objector status:

(1) Disqualified if you do NOT apply before you get your induction notice

(2) Disqualified if you have ever been turned down for CO status before

(3) Disqualified if your objection is based on any political objection to foreign policy

(5a) This is Orwellian doublespeak at it's best. It's not whether or not you sincerely are CO, but if your convictions are sincere, as defined, in part, by "an evaluation of each person's thinking". Apparently the mind control experiments of the 60s and 70s were much more successful than anyone thought at the time, since the military can now read your thoughts.

"Outward manifestations of the beliefs asserted" could mean that if you have ever defended yourself from any attack, you do NOT qualify, and given the proviso of "thinking and living in totality, past and present", it could easily mean that if you resisted having your lunch money taken by the school yard bully in 3rd grade, you do NOT qualify as CO.

(5b) "relevant factors" for CO determination are "training in the home and church", so if your parents did NOT train you to be CO, you're NOT CO. If you didn't go to church, you're NOT CO. If your parents didn't take you to church, then the only other way you could have become a conscientious objector to violence and killing would have been some "activity, comparable in rigor and dedication" to church.

So, merely concluding, through intellect, ethics, morality, cultural, or social influence that "thou shalt not kill", will not be sufficient, and if any process you use to come to the conclusion that you will not kill another person, doesn't have the "rigors and dedication" of going to church every Sunday, praying every day, tithing 10%, etc., and the usual manifestations of a church goer, the conviction is NOT considered a "sincerely", "deeply" held conviction.

(5c) Disqualified if you have sought release from the military through any other means, and, as it's states on the next page, this includes medical reasons. So, if you have an existing medical condition and you inform the military of that, you're disqualified from then seeking Conscientious Objector status.

Obviously, all this is designed to be prohibitive, intimidating, and threatening to anyone that wants to refuse military service because they would never intentionally kill another person.