Edward Kienholz "the portable war memorial"

in this edward keinholz describes his work " the portable war memorial"i still don't quit understand it well, but i think i might. he says the you read the sculpture from right to left. at first you see the old propaganda poster of uncle sam then a tomb stone with an inverted cross. the tomb stone is made of blackboard material with names of countries that don't exist anymore. then some tables and a coke machine a clock set to the current time (i'm guessing to the time zone the piece is in) then another tomb stone that represents the future and is pretty blank but there is a crucified man with his hands burned. he says that this is relating to our nuclear predicability and responsibility. now what interests me is the names of the countries that don't exist any more and the tomb stone for our future. might he be saying that we will eventually burn our hands fighting for something that will inevitably be come part of the past.
fermin jimenez