Ray Franz had an extend analysis of this in the book Crisis...JW don't know anything about their past. Most of the JW's are new, propably came after 1995( I know many that they did after that date).
My personal experience with the WT was the "conscious issue" serving the Army. Back in the mid 80's then in my country they told us that when the time comes to join the Army, we will say that, "due to our trained Christian Conscious, we cannot join the Army". I recall that the "elders"they used to give guide lines for those who had the "neutrality issue". One of their basic guidelines for us was: NEVER SAY TO THE AUTHORITIES THAT THE WATCHTOWER IS TELLING YOU NOT TO JOIN THE ARMY. YOU MUST SAY THAT THIS IS YOUR PERSONAL DECISION BASED UPON YOUR CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUS...
So with this statement WT was saving their ass! The blame it was upon the brothers and the decision was theirs!!! Plus the Goverment couldn't blame legally WT that it is promoting an anti-army policy.
The most shameful part of the WT, was that in some countries they accepted ALTERNATIVE Service, while in my country they just didn't accept it. Many brothers suffered in prison for 3-5 years due to that policy. Then(as usual) WT came after few years and ACCEPTED Alternative Service for the brothers.
I recall when I had a discussion with a former JW on this matter. He said that were lucky because we are living in European Country. Imagine if we were living in an African regime. We would have been killed for sure!!! So just like the story of the Malawi Brothers, not many JW's recall that event. or what was happening in other countries on this issue. The GB those twisted old fools, they just follow the pattern that Booze Jo left as legacy for the WT. They find mechanisms to triger persecutions and blame it to the Devil(as usual)and that they are "God's chosen people"that they are suffering for the sake of the truth..."