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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Swams, Stings and Robot Insects, October 28, 2008
This review is from: Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War (Hardcover)
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Now this is good stuff right here. Sure, we've all heard about how the ancients used to launch jars filled with scorpions or how the Plains Indians would torture enemies by burying them up to their neck near a fire ant nest, but who would have thought that insects could be used as weapons in the modern era? This book takes a look at an odd, but surprisingly effective, history of insects and their military applications, both experimental and in practice, as well as some less than savory miscellanea.
The book starts off from the beginning, approrpirately enough, looking at a wide variety of insects (and other arthropods) being used by various generals throughout antiquity. The above mentioned examples are par for the course, but we also get mention of other anecdotes, such as the mythical venomous dikairon bird of India (which Lockwood identifies as a particularly nasty rove beetle), the use of bees and wasps to deter invaders, launching plague infected cadavers from trebuchet, and my personal favorite, the story of Nasrullah Bahadur-Shah, the Emir of Bukhara in Central Asia, who used assassin bugs and sheep ticks to torture his enemies. Lockwood is very attentive to the role that plagues, disease and poisons from insects have played in military history as well.
He continues on, however, into more recent historical applications of insects in warfare, going through the various attempts by the United Sates, Japan and Soviet Russia to use insects during World War II and the Cold War. In particular, he examines attempts to use insect vectors to spread the bubonic plague and malaria in Asia. Even so, older tactics remained in use, as he points out that the Viet Cong would set off explosives near bee hives to get them to attack American troops. The American response? Try and develop chemical phermones that would turn bees into allies against the Communists! This is all fascinating stuff, some of which worked out better than other applications, but all innovative nonetheless. The real meat of the book, the REALLY scary stuff, is what he gets to by the end of the book.
The latter chapters start going into today's uses of insects, including the very real concern that insects could be used as agents of biological terrorism. Think that's far-fetched? Lockwood cites not only how easy it would be to reintroduce the exterminated screw worm to the United States, but also points out that domestic terrorists extorted the government in the late '80s by threatening to release the medfly into California. Insect pests cause billions of dollars of damage each year, and as the author notes, terrorist groups might very well consider destructive scenarios that conventional governments and militaries would never engage in in. Equally fascinating (and scary), he also takes a look at government experiments into controlling insects through cybernetics, and the potential ramifications of such practices. Cutting edge stuff that!
The entire book is absolutely fascinating, and completely understandable from the civilian and/or layperson end of things. At the same time, he is very careful to use proper Latin names for all of the medically significant insects (and occasionally, arachnids) mentioned in this book. Lockwood writes on a very captivating subject; I was so into this book that I think I read through it in only a few hours. Whether you are into entomology or military history, this book will be right up your alley. But what really wins him points is that Lockwood not only wrote a fascinating book, but also has a recommended reading list at the end, citing articles and books that will keep you up to date on much of the material that he writes about.
If you liked this book, I would also recommend checking out Adrienne Mayor's 'Greek Fire, Scorpion Bombs and Poison Arrows,' which Lockwood mentions in his recommended reading list. It's an equally fascinating book covering biological warfare in the classical world. Both books are going to appeal to the same audience, so if you like one, you'll like the other.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting, Quite Exceptional, Look at Humanity's Usage of Insects as Weapons of War, March 12, 2009
This review is from: Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War (Hardcover)
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Replete with all the suspense and intrigue found in the best spy novels of Ian Fleming and John Le Carre, Jeffrey A. Lockwood's "Six - Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War" is not just a gripping, exceptional account of humanity's usage of insects as military and economic weapons of war from antiquity to the present. It is quite possibly, the definitive exploration of this very subject, and one that deserves as wide a readership as possible, for rather obvious reasons. Trained as a biologist with substantial expertise in ecology and epidemiology, Lockwood combines these gifts, along with a sound understanding of history and his exceptional writing, in weaving together a most beguiling narrative that reads more like a Cold War spy thriller than a superb piece of nonfiction. In this rather timely book, Lockwood makes a most compelling case explaining how and why insect usage in warfare has often changed the course of not only battles, but indeed, entire campaigns, citing as notable examples, the Mongol conquest of much of Eurasia, and more recently, Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, the American Civil War and the Western Front during World War I.
Among the most compelling chapters in Lockwood's book are those devoted to the infamous Japanese general Ishii Shiro and his Unit 731, based in Japanese-occupied Manchuria (Northeastern China) during World War II, and responsible for countless crimes against humanity against both Chinese civilians and military prisoners of war. In painstakingly graphic, often gory, detail, Lockwood traces Ishii's "path to infamy", demonstrating how this idealistic Japanese army doctor - who had shown early promise as an important epidemiological researcher on diseases - used his connections in the upper echelons of both Japanese military and civilian elites in creating a vast military-industrial complex in Manchuria devoted to biological warfare. A "path to infamy", which led ironically to Ishii's salvation at the close of World War II, sparing him the hangman's noose for his heinous war crimes, after his extensive interrogation by United States military officers interested in creating a viable American biological weapons program. Lockwood compares and contrasts Ishii's diabolical programs with other, almost as elaborate, research conducted by Canadian, American and British military scientists during World War II, implying that all were as morally suspect as Unit 731's efforts at "weaponizing" virulent diseases like bubonic plague.
While still compelling reading, Lockwood's historical recollection of Cold War entomological weapons research practiced by both the West and the East reads more like a litany of "Just So" Rudyard Kipling-esque tales. I found especially fascinating allegations of economic entomological warfare practiced by the United States against Fidel Castro's Cuba, but, as Lockwood himself notes, these were merely allegations not firmly supported in the 1970s and 1980s by sufficient scientific evidence. He is on much surer footing at the very end of "Six - Legged Soldiers", chronicling potential usage of insects in war, ranging from using them as disease vectors to causing substantial disruptions in agricultural economies from pest infestations of crops. His nightmarish scenarios are those well worth pondering by anyone interested in ensuring ample defense from biological terrorist attacks upon the United States.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The tiniest WMD, May 1, 2009
This review is from: Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War (Hardcover)
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Six-Legged Soldiers is an interesting look at how bugs have been drafted by humanity as vectors to spread disease. Be it to destroy crops, sicken an enemy, or torture a captive, insects have been our unwilling minions for as long as mankind has been around.
The first third of the book is dedicated to insects and their use in history. The critters that steal the limelight are the creepy-crawlies we loathe, like spiders, wasps, and scorpions. But according to Lockwood, the real threat isn't just from the direct harm an insect can inflict by bite or sting, but from the diseases they carry. Mosquitoes carrying yellow fever can inflict far more damage on an army than a hive full of angry bees.
From there, Lockwood moves on to conspiracy theory. Rife with allegations alternately unfounded and confirmed, it traces the Japanese government's top-secret experimental program conducted during World War II and America's subsequent dark dealings with the scientists from that same program. Do we have knowledge of bio-weapons capable of spreading plague vectors? Lockwood seems to think so. The real controversy is: have we used them?
The second third of the book discusses this at length, as well as other governments' possible use of insects in modern warfare. The problem is that the evidence is nigh impossible to prove. The very nature of insect warfare, a vector that spreads at its own pace and on its own terms, is its greatest strength and weakness. Modern militaries supposedly reject using insects because they're unpredictable; countries attacked by irruptions of plagues claim the insects were unleashed precisely because they're so innocuous.
Lockwood comes to the conclusion that the most obvious use of insects in warfare isn't on the modern battlefield at all, but as part of a terrorist attack against civilians. He drags out such horrors as the parasitic screwworm, vegetation-devouring beetles, and crop-destroying aphids. Eminently transportable, easily unleashed, and capable of inflicting immense damage with comparatively little effort, Lockwood emphasizes that the next Weapon of Mass Destruction is actually very tiny indeed.
There's a lot of meaty content here, but it's at times overshadowed by Lockwood's narrative, which is reminiscent of a carnival barker. He's enamored with alliteration, to the point of distraction. Six-Legged Soldiers also lacks focus. It's alternately a historical review of insect warfare, a conspiracy theory on government cover-ups, and a modern drama about terrorism. If you're a fan of all three topics like I am, this book is a compelling review of insects as weapons.
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