When Amalickiah arrived in the Land of Nephi, he convinced the king of the Lamanites to gather troops to war against the Nephites. Did these soldiers have a choice? In fact, many of them did not want to participate. They could well have said something like, “Wait a minute! It was only a couple of years ago we got beat pretty soundly up there,” or more exactly, as Mormon states, “they feared to displease the king, and they also feared to go to battle against the Nephites lest they should lose their lives.”
We can almost hear them complain: “Those Nephites knew what they were doing. We were fighting on foreign land. We were much too exposed. We did not have supply troops. We were over-extended, and they had better armor. We do not want to go back.” But they were afraid and did not want to offend the king.