Pacifists flourish only in free societies. You might consider it a form of civilization degeneration - stupidity marked as idealism. Of course, carried to its logical conclusion, pacifism would portend its own inevitable extinction. There's irony then, in that these people are given the freedom to be stupid to the point of utter imbecility by the very people they despise the most - the soldier who protects through his death in combat their right to exercise that stupidity of intellect.
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)
I agree. Unless the pacifist enjoys the vicarious protection of his neighbor, community or nation, he will either be a slave or dead.