Postscript American Dreams

Scene from last night's show: a bereaved mother meets her son's coffin at Dover Air Force Base, while at the Lair Country Joe MacDonald sings the "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die" Rag.

This has to have been among the most subversive moments in a series featuring many subversive moments, just by throwing up for examination the parallels between Vietnam then and Iraq now.

Don't bother with the comments about how Vietnam and Iraq are not the same. I've lived through both and know the drill. What American Dreams does, and does brilliantly, is bring back that time in three-dimensions. Not pretty, not suffused with a nostalgic haze, but real, sharp, and intensely painful.

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.