Electromagnetic attack: Thinking the unthinkable

The Heritage Foundation ^ | July 28, 2009 | James Jay Carafano

[arthurus]

Part of the problem is that the SocialDemocrats, who are overwhelmingly in control, believe that no one would attack a truly “Progressive” country which they think the US is becoming under Social Democrat rule and at the same time they believe that the US “deserves” whatever mayhem that aggrieved whoevers might inflict on the US. They also are firmly wedded to the mindset that defense against physical violence is the most heinous crime. They rip open the collective American shirt and bare the American chest, crying out “shoot me, if you must!” believing that the righteous enemies of America will be moved by the spectacle of desperate confession of sins and relent.

[arthurus]

ANY diet if stuck too will help you loose weight....

Somalia might be the more apt comparison.

[arthurus]

i.e. a mega Faraday cage.

[backhoe]

I remember an article in a science magazine a couple years ago...

Here's something from the middle 1990's...

-Magnetocumulative Generator Warhead--

[erman]

funny

[OneWingedShark]

Interesting, thanks for the link.

[backhoe]

[ChocChipCookie]

What worries me that IF something like this happened, anyone with a running vehicle would immediately become the target of swarms of desperate, armed people.

[uscabjd]

What are the “significant challenges” in pulling off such an attack?

[I Buried My Guns]

I'm getting into my survivalist mode, and one of the things I bought was a small transistor radio, AM/FM/SW.

I made a Farady Cage for it that cost about 11 cents: I wrapped it in aluminum foil, and grounded it to a water pipe in my garage.

I'm sorry for not stimulating the economy!

[ChocChipCookie]

I didn’t make any comments about “significant challenges.”

[uscabjd]

The article made reference to the challenges such an attack would pose, as a reason some discount the possibility of a EMP attack. I don’t know what they are - just wondered if someone did.

[GOPJ]

Both the departments of Defense and Homeland Security place dealing with the threat of catastrophic attack high on their lists of what keeps them up at night. Yet, Homeland Security doesn't include an EMP as one of their disaster-planning scenarios.

If Iran does an EMP attack on the US, millions of Americans will die.

And Janet Napolitano will go down in history as the biggest idiot of all time.

[GOPJ]

As for the Pentagon, Gates just cut 10 percent of the missile-defense budget--the best weapons we have to prevent EMP attacks. Congress is equally in la-la land. Having commissioned the EMP report and accepted its findings, last week the Senate joined the House in rubber-stamping Gates' missile-defense cuts.

Guess there's no lobbyist lining the pockets of our congresscritters on this one...

[CodeToad]

“But the truth is a large-scale one would be an instrument of genocide. “

The stated EMP affects is neither truth nor genocide. It MAY have some limited abilty to affect some long wire devices and systems, but this idea that anything and everything electronic would fail and we would all die is nothing but ignorance and drama queen antics.

[ChocChipCookie]

I read Newt’s original article on the subject a couple of months ago, and I believe he mentioned it would “only” take 2 or 3 nuclear warheads exploding hundreds of miles above the U.S. to have these devastating consequences. Maybe the powers that be think it would be a significant challenge for our enemies to come up with that, but I don’t see why.

[weef]

Check out the book One Second After by William R. Forstchen.

Great book - both interesting and seriously depressing.

[ChocChipCookie]

And Janet Napolitano will go down in history as the biggest idiot of all time.

The biggest idiot, huh? Man, there's some stiff competition for that title. LOL

[thefactor]

so my ‘89 wrangler might work? sweet. put the top down and cruise in the traffic free streets of NYC. shotgun in hand, of course.

[19th LA Inf]

Ironically, NASCAR calls their current generation of “stock” race cars “Cars of Tomorrow”. They have carburetors, pushrod valves, and all the high technology of the 50s. Maybe “cars of yesterday” are what we ought to be buying.