[SampleMan]

A blue ribbon commission? Gosh those are always right. Why don't we forgo a government and just get more blue ribbon commissions?

Seriously though, I don't disagree with the commission. But they don't say that a single EMP is going to destroy Western Civilization. They say that it would "impair" or "degrade" our electronics over maybe 1/4 (if very high) to all of the Continental U.S. (if extremely high) depending on the altitude and sophistication of the bomb. This does not equate to frying every electronic device in the USA, let alone the Western World.

I've never said it wouldn't do damage. One EMP just wouldn't do sufficient damage to turn us into Lord of the Flys.

[papertyger]

And if losing two buildings in New York dislocated our economy for a couple of years what would losing just five percent of electronic devices across the country.

You were talking 20 km and ipods before. Now you know that's obviously wrong.

Western civilization will still exist if America gets knocked back a hundred years, but what IS Western civilization if America is too busy getting back on her feet to be a player on the world stage for a few years?