But he included no payment with his tax return, just a letter stating his moral opposition to war.

Like thousands of other war tax resisters, Ramsey, a human rights activist in St. Louis, Missouri, is electing to "reroute" the money to peaceful causes.

"I can't in good conscience feel that I can take resources that are given to my family to live on and share and give them to other people who will use them to kill people," he told AFP.

Retired schoolteacher Chloe Giampaolo was outside the offices of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Tuesday as a small group of war resisters protested the use of tax dollars to pay for past, present and future wars.

"I won't stand by and do nothing," said Giampaolo, whose tax bill this year amounted to 800 dollars. "We need leaders. We don't need maniacs, and that's what we have right now."

The 65-year-old pensioner said she is willing to go to jail for her stand against war.

However, few war tax resisters -- including many who have refused to pay their taxes for decades -- wind up behind bars.

"The IRS has generally shown little interest in prosecuting war tax resisters," a Washington group's leaflet explains. "Prosecutions, when they do occur, tend to generate sympathy and support for resisters."

Ed Hedeman, author of the recently published "War Tax Resistance, A Guide to Withholding Your Support from the Military," said he has been resisting paying tax for 32 years.

He said figures for this form of civil disobedience were difficult to obtain because the IRS "don't want to give credence to the movement."

IRS spokesman Bruce Friedland told AFP: "We don't keep such statistics."

Ramsey, who estimated that between 4,000 and 6,000 US citizens are redirecting their tax dollars this year -- from a peak of some 20,000 during the Vietnam War -- said in his letter to the IRS that he was refusing to pay "because of the horrific, brutal war the US has been waging against Iraq."

The letter adds: "Because of my fundamental opposition to killing, I cannot willingly pay for the military. Not only do I find the killing of people ... morally repugnant, I do not believe such acts protect me or solve problems, whether they be international or domestic."

The War Resisters League estimates that 47 percent of the US tax dollar goes to cover past wars -- totalling veterans' benefits with 80 percent of the national debt -- and present and future wars, adding up the money allocated for the Defense Department and the military portions of other budget sectors.

The calculation is based on a line-by-line analysis of 1.7 trillion dollars of discretionary spending set out in the 2004 budget, which totals 2.2 trillion dollars.

The 804 billion price tag for military spending does not take into account the 80 billion dollar supplemental spending bill, passed by Congress on Saturday, to cover the first six months of the war on Iraq and its aftermath.

Ramsey has refused to pay federal income taxes since the 1972 "Christmas bombing" of Haiphong and Hanoi killed more than 1,500 Vietnamese civilians.

"People have given me money to be active on human rights issues," he reasons. "I don't have the right to turn that money around and give it to the Pentagon."

Instead, he redirected 1,700 of his tax dollars to the cause of human rights this year.

SPACE.WIRE