[GordonS]

It's not that I'm a pacifist, but more that I don't trust my government (UK, but I have the same issues with the US gov too) to do justifiable things with them.

If they were for defense only, I might be able to do it. But instead they are sold to any government with the means to pay, regardless of their human rights record or how they will be used (e.g. Saudi). Aside from selling them on, they are used in conflicts that are hard to justify, beyond filling the coffers of the rich and powerful. Take the latest Iraq war for example: started based on falsified evidence, hundreds of thousands dead, atrocities carried out by the west, schools bombed, incidents covered up...

Given these realities, I just couldn't do it.

My original musing was more thinking along the lines of an ideal world, where I trusted my government; I'm still not sure I could do it.