Just waded through the:
"Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
Critical National Infrastructures
April, 2008"
To save you several hours of yawning, here it is condensed to one paragraph:
We're vulnerable to "the electromagnetic pulse generated by a high altitude nuclear explosion". "When a nuclear explosion occurs at high altitude, the EMP signal it produces will cover the wide geographic region within the line of sight of the detonation". The result would be "electricity, telecommunications, and electronics ... out of service over a significant area for an extended period of time", "months to a year or more". "Electronics are used to control, communicate, compute, store, manage, and implement nearly every aspect of United States (U.S.) civilian systems." Everything from banking and communications to the production and distribution of food, water and fuel might be catastrophically impacted.
The report also made reference to the possibility of “vigilante redistribution” of "consumer goods and luxuries". I'm not fluent in PC, so I had to read that a couple times to grasp it. "When the failure of police and emergency services becomes protracted, the lawless element of society may emerge".
So, just like we should already be doing if we live anywhere that blizzards, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados or social unrest can occur (yes, you do) think about heat, light, water, food and security after the lights go out. A stocked pantry (don't forget Fido and Barfy), a couple cords of split, dry, stacked wood for the woodstove, a source of water and a means to purify it, a case of candles, and the means to discourage "vigilante redistribution".
6 comments:
S'up Oblio? How likely do you think this scenario is? I mean, government who currently have the capability to detonate nukes in low orbit are what, Russia, China, maybe France. I know North Korea is working on it, but they don't have a vehicle for it yet. Iran's doesn't even have nukes yet, much less a vehicle to transport them into orbit. So anyhow, how does an EMP attack compare with a convential nuclear attack or even a dirty bomb type attack? Just wanted to get your opinion.
Do you miss me already?
I don't know how likely it is, but we have enemies working towards it and who knows what's for sale in Russia these days.
At any rate, it doesn't require any precautions in addition to what's prudent every winter up here in the frozen wastelands, anyway.
An EMP attack would occur at high altitude, and might not cause a single immediate casualty. A dirty bomb would be much a lower tech surface burst affecting a much smaller area. (The Germans were working on a plan in WWII to dirty bomb NYC with radioactive sand, BTW.) Both are sort of 'weapons of mass disruption' rather than 'weapons of mass destruction', in a way.
ROTFLMAO,
Yeah I miss you, you trollish bastard. Plus I like your blog. Plus I haven't finished converting you to Christianity. Keep up these blog posts though. I especially liked the ones on the military rifles.
Have you read the book, "One Second After"? It was on the NY Best Seller list earlier this year and goes through the cause and effect of an EMP attack on the US. Sobering to say the least. Check it out. http://tinyurl.com/luwjzq
I have not read it. Heard about it, read the reviews on Amazon, and decided not to bother.
New development: President Obama announced today that he would scrap the missile defense system for Eastern Europe, but keep the one on our west coast. Does that mean he thinks Iran is less of a threat than North Korea? Or is he trying to appease the Russians?
Post a Comment