"Detonated at a height of 60 to 500 kilometers above the continental U.S., one nuclear warhead could cripple the country – knocking out electrical power and circuit boards and rendering the U.S. domestic communications impotent. "
No it wouldn't, due to shielding standards and lack of blast radius. Stupid fear-mongering article lost all credibility there.
Just say "We want to attack Iran" and make up a lie and do it, instead of coming up with BS like this.
If it were true then when we did all those surface and even above surface tests in the US and Pacific we should have shut down the Country right? But wait-it didn't happen.
China-above surface tests.
Russia-above surface tests.
France-above surface tests in the Pacific.
While we all know what EMP is, and agree that a nuke over the US would be really bad, I think the writer of this article thinks we are stupid. He's another one selling us a "nuclear winter"- "Ozone hole" or what's the trendy slogan now? I forget. "Acid Rain" Oh-that's long gone. Ahhh yea, it's "Global Warming" now.
Red6
I agree with you but would just like to point out the "blast radius" comment is irrelevant to the EMP effects.
The article is sophomoric - it fails on several levels. Not least of which is the fact ALL military-spec systems are impervious to EMP detonations but so are a lot of the major power and communication grids which use shielded Faraday cages and easily-replacable breakers. The ongoing transformation to fiber optics is making these systems much more resistant to EMP effects. Thus, most power and communication networks will be restored within several days at the most and perhaps within just several hours.
Basically, the only long-lasting effect will be on common household goods and motor vehicles. That should make all Americans, including the leftists and Democrats, sufficiently pissed off to approve of complete nuking of Iran.
Maybe this was published as a sort of reverse-psychology propaganda piece.
Senator Kyl: "Hey guys, if the mullahs detonate an EMP in precisely this way, they can cripple us. He! He! He!"
Mullahs: "Hey, if we can detonate an EMP, we will cripple them. A stupid US Senator just said so."