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The Cockroach Perspective
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The Cockroach Perspective
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by Sean Gonsalves
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"You humans think you are the top of the evolutionary chain of life. Well, you are not. It is the cockroach who is the fittest to survive," the cockroach said.
"The fittest to survive what?"
"Nuclear war, of course," the cockroach said.
 "You talk as if nuclear war is inevitable. You know, some would argue that the possession of nuclear weapons deters wars."
The cockroach laughed and said: "the logical consequence of the preparation for nuclear war is nuclear war."
"What?"
"That's what Dr. Helen Caldicott wrote in her book 'Missile Envy: The Arms Race and Nuclear War.' She's a former Harvard Medical School professor and pediatrician who became a nuclear researcher and peace activist when she realized what I'm telling you - that cockroaches are the highest life form, precisely because human beings, with their big brains and rational realpolitik, will destroy their kind and we will survive."
"That's ridiculous..."
"In June 1948, at the beginning of the Berlin Blockade, President Truman authorized nuclear-capable B-29s to be sent to bases in Britain and Germany. The planes weren't loaded but the bluff convinced Harry Truman and his aides that nuclear threats can work," the cockroach said.
The cockroach continued: "In 1950, Truman warned that the U.S. was prepared to use nuclear weapons against the Chinese forces surrounding American troops at the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War, even though such a move would have killed the Marines, too, if they weren't able to escape."
"In 1953, Eisenhower secretly threatened China with nuclear weapons, which forced a settlement of the Korean War. In 1958, Eisenhower ordered the Joint Chiefs to employ nuclear weapons against China if they invaded Quemoy Island. It's all in Caldicott's book and is part of the documented record," the cockroach said.
"In 1962, President Kennedy threatened to use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union didn't remove its missiles from Cuba. From 1969 to 1972, President Nixon threatened to rain down nuclear weapons on North Vietnam, telling H.R. Haldeman: 'I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war."
"I don't believe it..."
"In 1980, President Carter issued a secret Pentagon study that concluded: 'to prevail in an Iranian scenario, we might have to threaten or make use of tactical nuclear weapons.' The idea of 'tactical nuclear weapons' is still very much in vogue today with your military planners."
"This is crazy..."
"Indeed. Your President Bush, in a campaign speech at the Citadel Military College said, 'Let me be clear. Our first line of defense is a simple message: Every group or nation must know, if they sponsor such attacks (biological, chemical and nuclear terrorism) our response will be devastating.' What do you think your president means by that?"
"The point of nuclear weapons is deterrence..."
" 'Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,' Jesus says in Matthew 24:29. Sounds like a nuclear winter," the cockroach said.
"You are out of your mind."
" 'And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven...and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power.' What if that is a contingent prophecy; an either-or scenario - either the road to destruction that humanity is heading down or the coming of a new humanity?"
"Blasphemy!"
"Yes, whenever someone tells you this truth you accuse them of heresy and then kill the messenger - Jesus, Gandhi, Dr. King. Are you going to now step on me and crush me?"
Pesky cockroaches.
Sean Gonsalves is a Cape Cod Times staff writer and syndicated columinist.
Copyright © 2001 Cape Cod Times.
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