Here's something from the middle 1990's...
-Magnetocumulative Generator Warhead--
Posted on 07/28/2009 9:56:15 PM PDT by ChocChipCookie
When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, it complained that federal agencies had a colossal "failure of imagination." Nobody could accuse Newt Gingrich of suffering from that shortfall.
When he delivered a major address on national security last week, the former House speaker went after Defense Secretary Robert Gates for planning for the future the Pentagon wants, rather than dealing with the many serious problems it may actually face. Gingrich mentioned one challenge that many find too terrible to contemplate--which is why our government should spend a lot more time doing exactly that.
I'm referring to the electromagnetic pulse (EMP). This method of attack is usually associated with a nuclear blast. In addition to thermal, radiation, heat and concussive force, an atomic detonation throws off an incredible amount of electromagnetic energy.
Picture a massive tsunami, but with lightning instead of water. And, like the surge produced by lightning, electrical systems act like antennas sucking down a rush of electrons that fry circuits and burn out microchips.
EMP is not normally addressed when talking about nuclear attack because most strikes are planned as low-air bursts where most of the energy, EMP included, goes straight into the ground (and flattens the target in between). In such scenarios, electrical systems would be disabled by EMP, though few would notice because most people would have been crushed or melted in the firestorm following the detonation.
A deliberate EMP attack, however, would be different. If, for example, an enemy detonated a nuclear weapon carried on a ballistic missile 200 miles or so above Earth, people on the ground might never know an attack occurred. But if the explosion happened high enough over North America, the blossom of EMP might cover the entire United States.
Last year, a congressional commission studied how a high-altitude EMP strike would affect the nation's infrastructure. The answer was simple: It would be devastating. The entire U.S. electrical grid might be gone and all the instruments of daily life that depend on electrical power useless. Life in the U.S., concluded the 9/11 Commission chair, scientist William Graham, "would be a lot like life in the 1800s," except with a significantly bigger population.
Just keeping modern-day America fed would be virtually impossible without working transportation or communications systems. Water-pumping and sewage-treatment plants would be offline. Modern medical care would be virtually nonexistent. Even if the rest of the world mustered the largest humanitarian mission in human history, the suffering would be unprecedented.
EMP attacks are often thought off of as attacks against the U.S. infrastructure. But the truth is a large-scale one would be an instrument of genocide.
Shockingly, some dismiss the threat out of hand. Michael Crowley, writing in The New Republic, dismissed the "Newt Bomb " as science fiction. That seems a real stretch, especially given the report handed to Congress.
The EMP problem isn't talked about much, yes, but not because responsible people think it's a sci-fi scenario. They don't talk about it because they are so overwhelmed by the challenges such an attack would pose.
Washington, D.C. is truly out to lunch on this one. 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.
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.
The idea that someone would attack the U.S. with jet airliners once seemed unthinkable. An EMP attack may today seem just as remote. But it's time to play it safe--and start figuring out how to deal with it.
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.
Somalia might be the more apt comparison.
Here's something from the middle 1990's...
-Magnetocumulative Generator Warhead--
funny
Interesting, thanks for the link.
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.
What are the “significant challenges” in pulling off such an attack?
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!
I didn’t make any comments about “significant challenges.”
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.
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.
Guess there's no lobbyist lining the pockets of our congresscritters on this one...
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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