It's hard to say which is believable because according to O'Brien it doesn't matter if it's true or not, as long as it seems real. In “The War Prayer” they celebrate to return home as heroes but they also pray for reassurance that they will return home safely, this would not be considered true because who would celebrate the war from the beginning; nothing about the war is to be celebrated. As for “Dulce et Decorum Est” a more surreal side of the war is shown with things that readers can identify with, as the poem is from the soldiers' point of view, as is The Things They Carried; making the readers sympathize with the things the soldiers go through, showing that it is not sweet and right to die for your country. This is a sense of truth, a poem that corresponds to the criteria of the novel of a “real” war”.