This afternoon Heather and I were talking about accidents of birth, fate, monumental decisions, pure luck and other heavy topics. (well it's better than discussing 'Survivor')

Ya see, by all rights I should have grown up in Bloomfield New Jersey, rather than Montreal and Toronto (My dad turned down a chance to be a big shot at his company's US head office)

So we started talking about Draft boards, and personal decisions etc. but mostly the RESULTS of not following your country's bidding. Got me thinking about a few things that I really don't know the answers to. Hopefully some folks can fill me in.

During (say) Vietnam, some folks went to jail, and others served their time in (military?) hospitals.....who did what? Were there other punishments? If you were part of an 'accepted' religion (Quakers, Salvation Army) did they go easier on you than if you just said "No" for strictly ideological reasons?

What about Britain or Israel, or the Palestinians (or any other countries or systems for that matter). How do they deal with pacifists?

I've only got one little bit of history in my family (it was NOT talked about!) concerning this issue, and it was about two of my cousins. One refused to fight in WW II (and apparently lived to a ripe old age with kids and grandkids....but with a great cloud over him) and the other enlisted, and was shot down over Germany a few months later. I found a little newspaper notice about his death when I was going through some old papers.

Anyway, thanks for any and all feedback.

Rick