In the satirical poem “Base Details”, the speaker exposes the hypocrisy and callousness of the majors in charge of sending men to war. By comically imagining himself as a major, the speaker reveals the privileged, carefree life that they live. He depicts himself as “fierce, bald and short of breath”(1), showing the irony of the men in charge—old and out of shape—who boss their subordinates around into doing tasks they themselves wo