When soldiers come back to America they tend to have trouble focusing and getting re-integrated, since they're so used to constant paranoia and violence, They "can't sit still" and don't like being in crowds of people, since in Iraq, a crowd of people can hide insurgents. As the song says, in Iraq the worst disasters could be set off by the smallest mistakes, "it doesn't take much for someone to shut you down." The bit about commotion while sleeping might mean a nightmare - lots of guys have these in the weeks after they're back, as a form of mild PTSD.
"Nothing but white noise" might be an inability to relate to people who don't understand what the war was like. This is why they can't "see eye-to-eye" with civilians. "They don't understand," or have incorrect ideas about the "army in your mind." When they're back everything seems so abnormal, like you "speak a different language," and some feel like the whole war was pointless, a lie that you can see through.
"Not your kind of people" seems to suggest that the American public ignored them or didn't appreciate them, and had them "cast as demons," but the songwriter won't stand for that, since they "are extraordinary people" who gave their all to support a country that doesn't understand them anymore.
I think it's a song about coming back from Iraq.
When soldiers come back to America they tend to have trouble focusing and getting re-integrated, since they're so used to constant paranoia and violence, They "can't sit still" and don't like being in crowds of people, since in Iraq, a crowd of people can hide insurgents. As the song says, in Iraq the worst disasters could be set off by the smallest mistakes, "it doesn't take much for someone to shut you down." The bit about commotion while sleeping might mean a nightmare - lots of guys have these in the weeks after they're back, as a form of mild PTSD.
"Nothing but white noise" might be an inability to relate to people who don't understand what the war was like. This is why they can't "see eye-to-eye" with civilians. "They don't understand," or have incorrect ideas about the "army in your mind." When they're back everything seems so abnormal, like you "speak a different language," and some feel like the whole war was pointless, a lie that you can see through.
"Not your kind of people" seems to suggest that the American public ignored them or didn't appreciate them, and had them "cast as demons," but the songwriter won't stand for that, since they "are extraordinary people" who gave their all to support a country that doesn't understand them anymore.