Seems that way to me. For those of us that are rational, it should be what Madison called the “ultima ratio.” But you can’t survive without force, or the credible threat of force. Not in this world. Hell, even animals know that much.
As for the original post, I took a similar oath to myself some decades ago. To reiterate though:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.
And I mean it...