I honestly don't know how you could get something that specific out of one line in a pretty general song, but whatever. It just seems unlikely to me that he would take a fairly personal sounding song and randomly throw in some line about the war in Iraq out of no where, especially when the rest of it doesn't add up to that at all.
I see it more as a mood of searching. Looking for something comforting and hopeful, such as one's own home:
"The road leads somewhere, but it's not yet to your door."
That's why is disappoints him when the places he used to know aren't the same and the memories seem lost:
Let's go down to the old South End, where we used to meet
Take me back to the basements and alleys on Walbridge Street
Ah, but it'll only make me sadder when I can't conjure ghosts no more
And due to this he has this feeling of loneliness and loss, like there isn't a reason for these problems with people. He does not feel the comfort he seeks because everyone seems to be out to get each other:
"And you still see people waiting for the next excuse for war."
And if that is a statement about war itself, I see it more as one of distaste for war in general, the human nature of it, and how it relates to his searching for the answers, not some specific protest.
I honestly don't know how you could get something that specific out of one line in a pretty general song, but whatever. It just seems unlikely to me that he would take a fairly personal sounding song and randomly throw in some line about the war in Iraq out of no where, especially when the rest of it doesn't add up to that at all.
I see it more as a mood of searching. Looking for something comforting and hopeful, such as one's own home:
"The road leads somewhere, but it's not yet to your door."
That's why is disappoints him when the places he used to know aren't the same and the memories seem lost:
Let's go down to the old South End, where we used to meet Take me back to the basements and alleys on Walbridge Street Ah, but it'll only make me sadder when I can't conjure ghosts no more
And due to this he has this feeling of loneliness and loss, like there isn't a reason for these problems with people. He does not feel the comfort he seeks because everyone seems to be out to get each other:
"And you still see people waiting for the next excuse for war."
And if that is a statement about war itself, I see it more as one of distaste for war in general, the human nature of it, and how it relates to his searching for the answers, not some specific protest.