Johnny Got His Gun #3

In a dream, Joe envisions a rat eating his flesh. He then remembers a moment during the war in which he finds a rat eating the rotting flesh of a dead Prussian soldiers. The soldier had been laying there for several days.

The rat represents the attitude of the war. It represents the real enemy of the soldiers- death. Its not each other because when you're laying on the ground dying you are no longer fighting a person. You are fighting the rat, who is devouring you. You are struggling to live. Neither side of the battle, according to Joe, benefit from war. They lose a lot such as Joe did. The only thing in this scenario which benefits from this is the rat. It doesn't die nor has to fight.