Editing Pacifism (section)

=====Conscientious objectors=====
There were [[conscientious objectors]] and war [[tax resisters]] in both [[World War I]] and [[World War II]]. The United States government allowed sincere objectors to serve in noncombatant military roles. However, those [[draft dodgers|draft resisters]] who refused any cooperation with the war effort often spent much of the wars in federal prisons. During World War II, pacifist leaders such as [[Dorothy Day]] and [[Ammon Hennacy]] of the [[Catholic Worker Movement]] urged young Americans not to enlist in military service.

During the two world wars, young men conscripted into the military, but who refused to take up arms, were called conscientious objectors. Though these men had to either answer their conscription or face prison time, their status as conscientious objectors permitted them to refuse to take part in battle using weapons, and the military was forced to find a different use for them. Often, these men were assigned various tasks close to battle such as medical duties, though some were assigned various civilian jobs including farming, forestry, hospital work and mining.<ref name="Kramer, Ann 2013">Kramer, Ann. Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War : Refusing to Fight. Pen and Sword, 2013.</ref> Conscientious objectors were often viewed by soldiers as cowards and liars, and they were sometimes accused of shirking military duty out of fear rather than as the result of conscience. In Great Britain during World War II, the majority of the public did not approve of moral objection by soldiers but supported their right to abstain from direct combat. On the more extreme sides of public opinion were those who fully supported the objectors and those who believed they should be executed as traitors.<ref name="Kramer, Ann 2013" /> The World War II objectors were often scorned as fascist sympathizers and traitors, though many of them cited the influence of World War I and their [[shell shock]]ed fathers as major reasons for refusing to participate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kramer |first=Ann |title=Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War: Refusing to Fight |year=2013 |publisher=Barnsley: Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1844681181}}</ref>