Carl Watner [WWP414+]:

  It appears to them [COs] to be totally contrary to an ethic of life-survival to support one’s enemy voluntarily.

  ...

  The conscientious objector rejects the State and the income tax for two reasons. First, he objects to their compulsory nature, and secondly, to the odious uses to which the State employs the money so collected. Government employees are the only group of people in society that regularly and “legally” use physical force, or its threat, to collect funds to sustain themselves. Whether the money is spent on ends of which the conscientious objector approves or whether the money is spent on ends of which he disapproves, the main point is that the money has been stolen, and therefore becomes tainted. It should be returned to its owners. Much as many people would like to think otherwise, the ends (whatever Congress decides to spend it on) do not justify the means (the coercive collection of funds).

  ...

  State agents and people who support the State are faced with a dilemma. Do they act as accessories to the crimes of coercion, extortion, and theft, or do they distance themselves from the State; the former—by resigning their official positions, and the latter by refusing to pay taxes? Conscientious objectors to taxation, like Henry David Thoreau, have already answered this question. They will not be compelled, even under the direct threat or use of force, to bear witness against themselves, or to acquiesce in payment of their taxes, so-called. They do not wish to be accused of complicity in government crimes, whether against themselves or others.