I have been reading a book about the history of Israel. One section was about people refusing to serve the army when Israel fought war in Libanon and Gaza because they didn’t agree with cruelties the Israel army conducted/ accepted. It made me think about the other way around: What if your country is attacked and people are being called to service by the army, would an anarchist refuse out of principle?
Quite some anarchist reject the idea of a centralized army so an anarchist might refuse out of principle. On the other hand, your country is being attacked. You can argue that accepting service is accepted because it is different from invading another country because you now have to defend your own country.
What are your thoughts on this?
Well, I’m not a committed anarchist but I’m sympathetic and within range of being convinced, as a caveat. But I’ll chime in for the sake of conversation.
I think it has mostly to do with what I think would happen if the invader won. Invasions are not usually contemplated by well intentioned states, so on the whole I’d recommend joining the defense. If you’re a pacifist you can still help a lot with mutual aid, or by doing war journalism to bring awareness to potential allies.
If I think the current state and the invader are both equally bad, perhaps best to seek a way to exit the situation and prepare for a planned return in greater numbers if and when the smoke clears.