Straightforward, Matter-of-fact
Let's face it: you don't usually think of "soldiers" and "poetic language" at the same time. "Poetic language" conjures up images of people lying around wearing billowy blouses and watching the waves. "Soldiers" makes you think of clipped, direct sentences—"Go, go, go!" or "All right, men: here's the deal."
After all, it's not the best idea to waste your breath when there's urgent information to be relayed.
There isn't a lot of philosophizing in this book, unless one of the characters is thinking out loud. The writing is all physical descriptions and dialogue, and much of the dialogue involves officers giving orders to privates like Birdy.
And even the descriptions aren't flowery—they're factual. Like this one:
There was a small building that could have been a mosque, very plain looking, and about fifteen two-story buildings. Most of the buildings had been hit and two of them were nothing more than a pile of rubble. There were two Humvees patrolling the area, just tooling through the streets. (6.57)
No wasted words here; no hint of how you should feel. Myers just sets the scene. The book feels like a real, factual account of the Iraq War.
Why did Myers write it this way? Why no flowery passages? We think its to make his readers fill in the gaps. He doesn't take a political position, and neither does his main character. He leaves it up to his readers to decide for themselves what they think about the war.