Throughout history, mankind has waged war on itself. For thousands of years, hordes of men and women have been sent out onto the battlefield to endanger their lives and to senselessly take other people’s lives. Often times, they are simply pawns fighting over nothing more than a baseless dispute between a small group of powerful people. Soldiers are ordered to mercilessly kill their opponents with whom they share many similarities. In Frank O’Connor’s “Guests of the Nation,” the narrator, nicknamed Bonaparte, tells a story about his time watching over two enemy soldiers, Blecher and Awkins, with his comrade Noble that exemplifies the pointlessness of rancor and war. In “Guest of the Nation,” Bonaparte and Noble, two soldiers in the Irish Republican Army, were assigned to watch over Blecher and Awkins, two British soldiers who were taken as prisoners of war. Although they were on opposing sides, this eclectic group of men put a side their differences expediently. Bonaparte explains, “After the first evening, we gave up all pretense of keeping close eye on their behavior”(). Even though the prisoners were on an opposing side during a time of…show more content… In reaction to this horrible news, Noble and Bonaparte were given orders to kill Awkins and Blecher. The men’s anguish is show when Noble expresses his grief by questioning the situation, “Why should we want to shoot him? What had he done to us? Weren’t we chums?”(). Noble and Bonaparte were given orders they had to obey if they wanted to avoid being killed and humiliated for treason(). They had no reason to kill their friends, but they faced a horrible fate if they did not. The Irish men were forced to kill their other because of a worthless political argument. Bonaparte and Noble were forced to resolve an issue that had nothing to do with their personal attachment to the