I'm not sure I agree with Rod McKuen in the words of his song when he says that soldiers would prefer to be civilians. I think there are many who would like to be heroes. I think there are more than one might imagine who find soldiering, even in battle, a fulfilling way of life. But like most romantics McKuen makes a point in favour of the world as he would like it rather than the world as it is.

In the modern era people are not forced into the military. They go for their own reasons. My own romantic notion is a world where all the people, and it would have to be every last one, refuse to join up. They do this not because they are cowardly but because men have finally learned that violence is nearly always counter-productive. That would be my useless contribution to the genre were I to write such a song.