From what I make out, Stipe's voice sings 'serve your conscience overseas' and the chorus replies 'over me, not overseas', so the chorus is kinda in a contradiction with the established patriotic opinion. Also, I think that the band had much to say about how the video would look like and you have this child that is now a man and, thus, a possible hint to a father-son relationship: the son is now a man and he will wage his own war, possibly a pacifist struggle. The fact that Stipe's father was in Vietnam is, I think, significant in this context.
From what I make out, Stipe's voice sings 'serve your conscience overseas' and the chorus replies 'over me, not overseas', so the chorus is kinda in a contradiction with the established patriotic opinion. Also, I think that the band had much to say about how the video would look like and you have this child that is now a man and, thus, a possible hint to a father-son relationship: the son is now a man and he will wage his own war, possibly a pacifist struggle. The fact that Stipe's father was in Vietnam is, I think, significant in this context.