Second, there is a gap between the "pointless futility" narrative and what soldiers actually believed they were fighting for – both during and after the war. Just as today our forces in Afghanistan take a pride in the job they do, and the bonds of service which they form, the same applied to those who fought in 1914-18. In those years, soldiers fought for much: a belief that their country was threatened, the rights of small nations, and when it came down to it, the man next to them in the trench. If we want to pay proper tribute to the dead of the war, and those who came through it, we would do well to remember that.