Not gentle on my mind

The Doomsday Machine has been on my mind lately. Couple weeks back I caught 'Dr. Strangelove' for the first time in decades, watching as American crazies helped set off the Russian Doomsday Machine, which would have prevented nuclear annihilation if the world knew about it, which it didn't. Then I stumbled across one of my all time heroes, Daniel Ellsberg, pitching his latest plea for nuclear disarmament, 'The Doomsday Machine' on Book TV. Ellsberg, speaking at the Chicago Writers Museum last month, reviewed his role in planning for nuclear deterrence in the 50's and 60's before he turned his focus to the Vietnam War lies in the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg discussed how America always got the Soviet nuclear threat wrong. The 'experts' estimate of Soviet ICBM's aimed at the US ranged from 300 to 1,000 when the real number at the time (late 50's) was 4. But the US used the fantasy numbers to set off an arms race that was totally unnecessary then...and totally unnecessary now, even though the last two administrations are proposing an un-cool trillion to upgrade our nuclear arsenal. And the Doomsday Machine? It would only take a couple hundred or so nuclear firestorms to set off a worldwide dust cloud that would starve most of humanity. But Ellsberg ends on an upbeat, arguing we simply have to abandon nuclear escalation in favor of disarmament to keep the Doomsday Machine under wraps. One would surmise the 2018 tax theft of $1.5 trillion in treasure given to the rich might derail such an insane plan. Nah, Congress will simply cut that money from the social safety net. Their mantra?  "Let the nuclear buildup begin."

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn