I believe that the poem is not designed to discuss war, its horrors, its heroes, or the tragedy which

it encompasses. The poem describes the characteristics of those who have fallen; the war is their backdrop. We may condemn war - indeed it behoves all sane people to do so - but to condemn those who fight for what they believe in, even if it not aligned with our beliefs, is to belittle humanity we as a race fight daily for what we have. We fight in the boardrooms, in the stock -exchanges, and in the many offices of our cities. We fight for life in the operating rooms and emergency rooms of our hospitals. We fight for to feed our families in the mess of the corporate jungle every day. Sadly, we also fight in the ruined streets of our cities, in the ghettoes, and in the shanty-towns. We fight for life in under -equipped and undefended tents in refugee camps and makeshift hospitals. We fight to feed our families from the war under -funded landscape and meagre hand outs. The people who refuse to give up hope for their own survival, who survive despite horrific circumstance, and those who actively pursue the improvement of the lives of others have as much claim to honour as those in classical war. There are not many of us who, when we pass, we be able to say that we "fell with our faces to the foe" or that we were "staunch to the end against odds uncounted".