How does Thomas Hardy's poem "Drummer Hodge" bring out the absurdities of war?

Thomas Hardy’s poem “Drummer Hodge” emphasizes the
absurdities of war in a variety of ways, including the
following:

• It seems absurd that a drummer, of
  all people, should die in the war. A drummer’s job is to summon other men to risk their
  lives; therefore it seems absurd that his own life should be
  lost.


• A drummer is presumably a non-combatant, someone
  whose job is not to fight or carry arms but to play the drum he carries. He is no direct
  threat to any enemy soldier, and thus his death, presumably by being shot, seems
  especially absurd.


• Drummers were likely to be especially
  young, indeed even to be boys; the death of a boy in war seems especially
  absurd.


• Drummers were so low in military rank and so
  relatively unimportant in terms of military responsibility and decision-making that the
  death of a drummer seems especially absurd. The death of a general or other commanding
  officer would seem less ironic than the death of a lowly
  drummer.


• Drummer Hodge dies and is unceremoniously buried
  in a land far from home – a land so far away that it poses no real threat to his own
  country. His death is therefore particularly
  absurd.


• Hodge never even has much of a chance to acquaint
  himself with this foreign landscape or its peculiarities before he is killed. He is not
  a long-serving soldier but apparently has only recently arrived in the place where he
  quickly dies.  His death is therefore especially
  absurd.


• The opening lines of the poem emphasize the
  absurdity of Hodge’s plight:

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They throw in Drummer Hodge, to
rest

Uncoffined—just as found.
(1-2)

If “absurdity” implies
a lack of meaning or significance, then Hodge’s death seems absurd. It doesn’t really
enhance the military might of the enemy. It is not commemorated in any ceremonies that
might seem to make some sense of it. The body seems merely something to be disposed of
rather than the sacred remains of a fellow human being, to be treated with dignity and
respect. Of course, one can’t really blame the people who bury Hodge for the hasty,
improvised nature of his burial.  They, after all, still have to deal with the
absurdities of war, as he no longer does.