Posted on 05/10/2009 7:15:55 PM PDT by Bean Counter
Author William D. Forstchen, who has co-authored six books with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has novelized one of America's worst national security nightmares in One Second After. The nightmare -- a rogue state's dream -- is that of a single missile launched from a barge several hundred miles off the coast of the continental United States, its atomic warhead arcing to a point 300 miles above Dorothy's Kansas and detonating. (The author uses three missiles; one can suffice.) The normal effects of a nuclear explosion close to Earth would not harm us from space: The resulting blast would be far too distant to send a lethal shockwave destroying anything on the ground beneath, a thermal pulse to incinerate anything, and would not create noticeable radioactive fallout.
But a little known effect of nuclear explosions would cause instantaneous, catastrophic harm to the entire continental United States. The blast would generate an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) series, striking a geographic circle 2,940 miles in diameter. Traveling at the free-space speed of light, EMP would reach ground in about one millisecond.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
If you read this book, especially the forewords, there are many Defense experts who think this scenario is a likely way that an enemy with only a couple of warheads to put into play, could instantly "level the playing field" with the USA, and only need one successful nuclear shot to do it.
And one of Saddam Hussien's old Scud missiles is almost good enough to do it with. It's not like the technology isn't out there right now.
An EMP at altitude over the Midwest would instantly destroy most of the electrical grid not only in the US, but probably most Canada's too, especially around the Great Lakes. High voltage transmission lines would act like enormous antennas, directing the EMP into everything electrical in your house. Surge protectors don't blow fast enough to protect anything, and if you aren't "hardened" to military specs, you're fried.
I know, nobody wants to consider these kinds of things, (and that is part of the problem...) and there have been innumerable disaster scenarios in books and movies over the years, but this one is a bit different. It's scary to consider how quickly civilization could break down around our ears, but think about how many things are computerized which makes them completely vulnerable to an EMP attack, and think about what it would be like without any electricity nationally, for a year or more.
They never do say specifically who it was that attacked the US (and other Countries...), but the aftermath....it sure lowers the US's carbon footprint, instantly. One of the scariest and most plausible novel I've read in a while. This is a little dated, but a search didn't turn it up here at FR.
Buy the book...
Iran doesn’t need to use a barge. If they can put a satellite in orbit, they can shoot a nuke over us.
The only problem with this scenario is that an EMP blast would still leave most of our military intact—especially our nuclear retaliation capability. Plus, the resulting misery and panic would kill millions of people, but would surely cure just about all liberals of their disease. The cessation of modern creature comforts and even the basic necessities for survival would quickly bring them into contact with reality—maybe for the first time in their lives. If they survived (a big if for many), the would surely have a very different view of human nature. Suffice to say that we would feel a lot of pain, but the toughened survivors would eventually rebuild. And we would be sufficiently PO’ed that we would absoutely wipe the country (or countries) behind it off the face of the Earth.
BUMP!
I don’t know about 7 years late, but I know that Joel C. Rosenberg’s “Dead Heat,” which was published in 2008, had a very similar scenario, but the barges fired missiles taking out the east and west coasts of the USA instead of Kansas. As I recall, the electro-magnetic pulse was not a factor in Rosenberg’s scenario, however, it surely WOULD be if, God forbid, it should actually happen.
I absolutely concur.
I read the article. Good science fiction. Not that the scenario couldn’t happen, but the end-of-the-world Mad Max aroma of the plot fits well with in the psot-nuclear genre. I’m living in a town right now that is preparing for the flood of the century which could, conceivably, wipe out half the community, and folks are focused, calm, and ready. Not every place or country collapses in the face of disaster.
My own science fiction idea about an EMP attack on the United States head off in the other direction. The scenario outlined in the book - going back to 1875 technology - would be confronted with the fastest, most comprehensive rebuilding in human history - with the addition of a killer military and a hardened attitude about the world. A good plot might see the United States rise from the ashes, take on the role of the world’s police rooting out every anti-American group on the planet, and creating a worldwide American empire that would make the Pax Romana seem like small potatoes - and during that little post-EMP rebuilding period, getting rid of the Jon Stewarts and Nancy Pelosis along with the employees of NPR, ACORN, the New York Times, and Code Pink just to make sure that the enemy isn’t domestic as well as foreign. Like I say, just a science fiction plot.
I just finished listening to the unabridged book tape. I thought it was a very good tale.
It touches on a lot of subject matter that would surely be a problem if an EMP was as disastrous as the book details:
- cities becoming unsafe hellholes
- city gov’t types hoarding goods
- the push by those who have nothing to share everything
- the instinct by those who have something to hoard and not share
- how do you reconcile those 2 groups?
- the natural tendency for bad people to form into groups of raiders
I know someone second hand who works in the oil industry out of Houston. He claims one of the greatest gov’t fears is that a nuke gets close to Houston on a ship and goes off. Much of the country’s energy flows from pipes based in Houston. I worry about that a little more than I worry about an EMP.
I read this book. I live in the town that is the setting for this horrific happening, which, unlike other catastrophe stories, is an event that could really happen. Bill Forstchen is doing a book review tomorrow night. I pland to be there.
You Guy’s Sure My Tin-Foil Hat Will Work?
The book is more focused on how quickly civilization could and probably would, break down in a matter of a a few weeks or so if we were to lose the entire national power grid. It’s partly about the possible attack scenario, but more about what it might take to survive such an event, including an ongoing list of those who would not survive, and why. Think about how many people have life saving prescriptions, and how much of a ready supply there is at your local pharmacy.
How long would your local retirement home last if all power failed along with all sanitation and services??
How many buildings are there in your community, that are deliberately engineered to be sealed and completely dependent upon some sort of electrically operated and/or controlled climate conditioning device?? How many elderly would die in your town just because their air conditioning failed??
I’m at day 65, and the US Government is centered onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was at sea when the attack occured and survived with a bunch of other US Forces. They are steaming up and down the East Coast broadcasting the Voice of America, and the Secretary of State is now the President...no word on what happened to the Veep or the Speaker, but Air Force One went down in the initial EMP attack.
At the same time the locals in Black Mountain NC have executed the junkies that raided their local hospital and stole all of the drugs.
It’s certainly worth a read...
TM'ers.
Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how heavy their nuke is compared to the satellite. First attempts at nukes tend to be pretty heavy. Not as heavy as Fat Man, but heavy enough.
One good old Great Plains thunderstorm generates thousands more EMP amps than a nuke ever could.
IMHO (as an electronics engineering devotee).
WARDAY was written in 1984. Same premise.
“A good plot might see the United States rise from the ashes, take on the role of the world’s police rooting out every anti-American group on the planet, and creating a worldwide American empire that would make the Pax Romana seem like small potatoes”
Hmmm. Almost sounds like the plot by Starkwood on 24— where right wing terrorists try to set off a bio attack to cause a rustless reaction.
If they got their plans from A.Q. Khan via North Korea, they would likely be similar to what the Pakis have, which I assume are small enough to mount on a ballistic missile.
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