It is believed that this song is about one particular war at one particular time. Unfortunately, its lyrics turned out to be timeless and they can refer to all those battles our society struggles with all the time.
The song, however, specifically addresses the tragic irony that the source of many genuine actions in the world, acts of loyalty, bravery and even love is often its most futile endeavour.
The lyrics speak about the feeling of togetherness ( in this case – soldiers) and the fact that they would give their lives for one another; however, the song also notes that the “soldiers of the opposing army” are similar and have the same concept of loyalty and love within themselves as well.
We all fight for the same thing but we don’t seem to be able to rise beyond our individual ego and hence, we don’t understand each other. What we can only see are the differences we hold which results with anger, the false sense of self and ultimately, loneliness. If we could understand one universal truth, that we are all one, there would be no wars, loneliness, dishonesty, blame, depression, etc.
Everything can be connected to life itself, and not one thing alone, in this case – a particular battlefield. This song could be addressed to many hardships in life and opposing sides people take in the midsts of them. Life is a battlefield. We do have our brothers in arms in our battlefield of life, but having said this, the opposing side, the side we are protecting ourselves from (our alleged enemies) are also in the midsts of their own inner battle. If we were able to see that and recognise that their suffering is our own, I truly believe the union of men would be possible.
Ultimately, the song is very sad and ends pessimistically by stating the unfortunate truth of our reality and a clear fact that:
“There’s so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones“