I don't know if New Order intended some figurative meaning by the soldier but maybe this song is very literal. The first person is a soldier in the back of a troop carrier with 3 miles to go to the front line. At the front line is an unknown enemy soldier with, in a sense, the same 3 miles to go before confrontation and one will shoot the other.
Perhaps it's a comment about war, about sending soldiers out from both sides to meet at some pre-ordained place to try to shoot each other.
I don't know if New Order intended some figurative meaning by the soldier but maybe this song is very literal. The first person is a soldier in the back of a troop carrier with 3 miles to go to the front line. At the front line is an unknown enemy soldier with, in a sense, the same 3 miles to go before confrontation and one will shoot the other.
Perhaps it's a comment about war, about sending soldiers out from both sides to meet at some pre-ordained place to try to shoot each other.