At first, I believed that James was singing this song to his ex-lover, and essentially trying to explain to her how he felt.
I believe it's a about a soldier deploying overseas, and his "mistake" is volunteering to be a soldier and by that profession, leaving behind his lover, as a result she leaves him,
"so i send some men to fight" implies that he is an officer who feels guilt for casualties he's taken
"said he'd seen my enemy, said he looked just like me", this can be taken a few different ways, 1) one of his soldiers blames him for their losses 2) he feels disgusted with himself for hurting his lovers feelings and he's soley to blame for them breaking up and for his affliction and 3) possably a observation about war, "he looked just like me" may suggest that we are all human, and infact, in this situation his "enemy" (an opposing army) would be a human being with the exact same profession as him. b) Of his experiences in Bosnia, he had to deal with stopping a genocide, so this could suggest he's lost all faith in the human condition
"cause i'll just make the same mistake again" suggests that his devotion to duty and self-sacrafice will overcome his selfish feelings of pre-maturely resigning from the army to stay with his lover
At first, I believed that James was singing this song to his ex-lover, and essentially trying to explain to her how he felt.
I believe it's a about a soldier deploying overseas, and his "mistake" is volunteering to be a soldier and by that profession, leaving behind his lover, as a result she leaves him,
"so i send some men to fight" implies that he is an officer who feels guilt for casualties he's taken
"said he'd seen my enemy, said he looked just like me", this can be taken a few different ways, 1) one of his soldiers blames him for their losses 2) he feels disgusted with himself for hurting his lovers feelings and he's soley to blame for them breaking up and for his affliction and 3) possably a observation about war, "he looked just like me" may suggest that we are all human, and infact, in this situation his "enemy" (an opposing army) would be a human being with the exact same profession as him. b) Of his experiences in Bosnia, he had to deal with stopping a genocide, so this could suggest he's lost all faith in the human condition
"cause i'll just make the same mistake again" suggests that his devotion to duty and self-sacrafice will overcome his selfish feelings of pre-maturely resigning from the army to stay with his lover