The song is from the point of view of a soldier preparing for battle. He has doubts about fighting for the country and is afraid that he’ll have to kill and shoot strangers.

[This song] was written about the people that fought in the Gulf War. It’s a song about how shitty war is, and how shitty war is that it’s started by politicians and has to be finished by ordinary people that don’t really want to kill anybody.

—Bruce Dickinson

The official music video for the song features vocals from former vocalist Blaze Bayley, not Bruce Dickinson who originally sang the song.