A powerful antiwar poem

One of the more powerful antiwar poems is Carl Sandburg's Ready to Kill. Written in first person, the poem's about the bronze statue of an unnamed Army general who's carrying a flag, sword, and gun. However, instead of being impressed by it, Sandburg wrote:

"I want to smash the whole thing into a pile of junk to be
hauled away to the scrap yard."

To Sandburg, the general doesn't belong in the company of others who've been memorialized in bronze:

"the farmer, the miner, the shop man, the factory
hand, the fireman and the teamster,"

They deserve the honor, Sandburg said, because they do the world's real work; they help people rather than harm them. He labels them the world's "real huskies." Unlike the general, each of them is not:

"Ready to kill anybody that gets in his way,
Ready to run the red blood and slush the bowels of men
all over the sweet new grass of the prairie."

I wonder what caused Sandburg to view the general's statue so negatively.

Sandburg fought in the Spanish-American War as a member of the 6th Illinois Infantry.