The narrator of the song is, indeed, dead... his speaking posthumously is nothing more than a poetic anti-war device. He was a brave man, but he was dead. Not the war, but his family was really what was important, and it's underlined by his ghost-soldier's realization that he can't see them again. Secular issues and the impact on individual lives are forgotten in the abstract philosophies of war, and New Order does a good job underlining the real impact and loss, not the petty and geopolitical... as pretentious anti-war songs attempt. I give them props.
The narrator of the song is, indeed, dead... his speaking posthumously is nothing more than a poetic anti-war device. He was a brave man, but he was dead. Not the war, but his family was really what was important, and it's underlined by his ghost-soldier's realization that he can't see them again. Secular issues and the impact on individual lives are forgotten in the abstract philosophies of war, and New Order does a good job underlining the real impact and loss, not the petty and geopolitical... as pretentious anti-war songs attempt. I give them props.