The belief that any violence, including war, is unjustifiable under any circumstances is to me a pie in the sky dream. Avoiding violence is usually the best course but not always possible. Bullies must be opposed.

In this world one can be a pacifist as long as you have a very strong military.There is not one nation that survives as a pacifist nation because there is always someone who will view pacifism as weakness. The premise that one could survive as a nation as a pacifist is ideological at best. Now as an individual , one might survive as a pacifist in a nation that has a strong police force. However that person might find themselves living as a hermit or living in a society that does not support their position in mass. As for non violence I do not believe that the human race has evolved to the degree that it can live without violence.

While I believe in pacifism if possible, it is not always the most effective solution. I would never support violence against innocent people, but if a few Neo Nazis are killed along the way, I won't shed any tears. If it was good enough for WWII, it is good enough for today. I posted on an atheist page that the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. Someone wrote that I should take the first shot and that they would follow. I responded that there were others who are younger and in better shape, but that I would give them coffee and sandwiches for their charity work. [america.aljazeera.com] ----"The modern gay-rights movement may have won many of its recent victories at the ballot box and in the courthouse, but it was born out of an act of violent desperation when a 1969 raid a New York City gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, turned into a riot as crowds attacked the police." ---- “a coalition of thousands of local efforts nationwide, spanning several decades, hundreds of discrete groups, and all manner of strategies and tactics—legal, illegal, institutional, non-institutional, violent, non-violent.” ----- “These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention,” King said in a 1968 speech. “And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.”

War
'Knobhead A' has a ding dong with 'Knobhead B'.
Both 'Knobheads' orders thousands of people (who weren't involved with the ding-dong) to fight each other and die.
Thousands of more people (who also weren't involved with the ding-dong) get killed because they happened to be between 'Knobhead A' and 'Knobhead B'
Both Knobheads live happily ever after (in most cases)

I consider myself a pacifist as far as relations between countries go because there are alternative actions that can be just as effective and cause less collateral damage than armed conflict. The first step is to disarm all nations by shutting down the arms trade. The US is not the only country to engage in this practice but we are among the nations on the cutting edge of technology constantly refining designs to make them ever more deadly and accurate. Enough. We should stop spending billions of dollars in research and development of ever more lethal weapons fueling other nations' need to stay abreast. Every two-bit dictator is armed to the teeth with American weaponry except for those who are armed by nations like Russia who, justified or not, feel threatened by the proliferation of weapons that keep the "defense" contracting branch of the corporate plutocracy in this country rolling in dough. Greed is at the roots of war mongering on our planet, not disputes that could be adjudicated. The American military, now engaged in multiple wars, is not fighting in defense of our liberty or anyone else's. They are fighting to loot other nations of their natural resources and spreading cultural imperialism to open markets for multi-national corporations to exploit. Such wars cannot be philosophically justified and have nothing to do with self-defense. Those young Americans duped into volunteering for military service by patriotic slogan and lies are used as pawns then discarded as damaged goods, most never realizing they have been manipulated. We maintain bases in over 150 countries around the world as an occupying force. In recent days after our presence in Niger was exposed by the death of four soldiers it has been revealed we have a military presence in 53 of the 54 countries on the African continent. To what end? Self defense? I think not! We need to deflate our bloated military, return them to our own shores and build an impenetrable defense for our nation's boundaries but stop the bullying abroad. I draw the line on self-defense at the internationally recognized limits of our sovereign nation. The only justifiable war is a war of self-defense.