WARS USUALLY DEGIN DUE TO A DISPUTE BETWEEN NATIONS AND BREAK OUT BECAUSE GOVERNMENTAL LEADERS CANNOT SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS PEACEFULLY. MOST LEADERS TRY TO AVOID WAR,BUT THERE ARE MANY INSTANCES OF BELLICOSE INDIVIDUALS ENTHUSIASTICALLY SEEKING OUT ARMED CONFLICT .
The poet says in the starting stanza that if they had met in
If only we'd met in some old pub, we would have sat down and shared many a beer!
"But I met him on the battlefield, each of us aiming at the other. We both took aim and fired, but he missed, while my shot killed him where he stood.
"I shot him dead because... well, because he was the enemy, that's all. He was the one I was supposed to shoot, obviously.
"Then again, he'd probably joined his army in similar circumstances to me, on a kind of whim. He was probably out of work at the time, just like I was. He'd probably had to sell his belongingsโI can't think why else he would have enlisted.
"Yup, war is a very strange thing! You end up shooting someone who you'd get along well with in a barโwho you'd even give money if they needed it."