Advocacy groups estimate that at least 1,500 veterans from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are sleeping rough in America’s cities. Have the lessons of Vietnam been learned?

“The idea is immortal, it is without class and it doesn’t care anything about wealth," he says. " I could get my horn and play for you, and believe me, I would play something."

“There are eight hundred and ninety-seven television shows about the viable, affluent America," he says. "There was one about the America that was left behind. Are they saying it was one too many?”

American politicians love Bruce Springsteen. They hear the patriotism in his songs but miss the cynicism, pick up on the hope and tune out the desperation.

Kurt Vonnegut is dwelling on the apocalypse. For the third time over lunch America’s funniest and most pessimistic novelist is explaining why he will welcome the end of the world.

One day Christina Aguilera will release a cover of Dylan’s Masters Of War, Justin Timberlake will perform I Ain’t Marching Anymore on primetime television and millions of average Americans will descend on the White House, demanding an end to the bloodshed.