ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how far evidence provided by current members of the US and British armed forces or veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who became war resisters. It explores why this is the case and shows that many resisters chose illegitimate ways to separate from the military. The chapter shows that the conscientious objection is the prime motivator for going Absent Without Leave (AWOL) or deserting, it argues that steep rises in such incidents after 2003, particularly in Britain, combined with the revival of resistance groups. The evidence examined after a brief survey of arguments against a right to selective conscientious objection stems from resisters of whom many, though not all, had gone AWOL or deserted at some point. The chapter critically assesses especially the linkage between knowledge and individual agency, how far recruits are enabled to accept the curtailment of their moral agency knowingly and by choice and the relevance of corporate responsibility for individual conscience.
