Posted on 09/24/2011 9:13:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
‘One Second After’ is a good book about an EMP attack.
Really? Close the barn door after the horse runs off?
What we need is a battle plan to eliminate the threat.
I sometimes wonder if that would really be such a bad thing.
There are many ways to protect and insulate against voltage surges due to high-altitude electromagnetic pulse, and they can be repaired. The problem is, the US grid AFAICR has minimal protections.
. . . you mean, while our enemies stay in the 21st Century?
I sometimes wonder if that would really be such a bad thing
"a single EMP attack could put America "back to the 19th century"
Isn’t that were 0-bama wants to put us?
This new triple alliance could work, I suppose ...... but it's a lot like strapping three Shetland ponies together, to take on Whirlaway or Secretariat.
Exactly!! How quickly would gangs of homos go cannibal? Probably after missing an episode of Glee.
A Real Zombie apocalypse: Dems without a Federal Government
When the rest of the world survives unscathed, you would find out how life is for the average Somali today, if you weren't part of the 90% mortality figure.
Translation: No, it would not be a good thing.
“I sometimes wonder if that would really be such a bad thing. “
I think after 100+ million people starved to death things would settle down into a comfortable routine.
The “EMP Threat” seems to come up every three or four months. Must be important for us to know, to get such regular reminders.
We seem to have this thing going where every week or so someone posts a story about an EMP attack on the United States. I think that speaks to our fears about our vulnerability, in the same way folks used to talk about nuclear war back in the 1950s and 1960s.
However, I have a different take on this.
Let’s say someone did launch an EMP attack.
For starters, the destruction of electronic equipment would not be complete. There would places where geography (living on the right side of a mountain, maybe) or happenspace (stuff in the basement, for instance) would prevent damage. I live in Alaska, and I our state isn’t anywhere near the initial pulse on the map.
Yes, there would be chaos and death. And that would provoke anger and outrage among the survivors. And those survivors would be focused on revenge. The sweet little passive-aggresive notions of containment and rendition and touching the Koran just right would go out the window and be replaced by warfare that would make Sherman’s march to the sea seem like a Sunday jaunt. And the survivors would do it. I don’t see the collapse of the United States following an EMP attack - I see the creation of Pax Americana on the cinders of the republic, with the gleeful support of the population. Then we would vaporize our enemies in the tradition of the Romans, salting the earth and razing the cities, and establishing ourselves, this time for real, as the world’s policeman.
Oh, yes. The rebuilt electronics would all be hardened against an EMP.
You couldn’t be more right!
Our plans to survive an EMP attack - and yes, One Second After, though quite poorly written, paints a good picture of the effects - are like a person making a self-defense plan in a gun fight.
Imagine you’re in a field with no natural cover. You watch a guy named Iran a long way away. You know he wants to kill you. He’s loading his handgun’s mags .45 with T-Series rounds as he begins to cross the field towards you to get in range. His intent is clear.
Besides a holstered 1911 as a backup, you have an M14 with a round already chambered, and many mags of ammo, but you leave it lying on the ground next to you, deciding instead that the best course of action is to make sure you have a bullet-proof vest on - you don’t have one, but you spend a lot of time trying to fashion something protective to wear out of things lying around you on the ground. And while you do this, Iran is coming closer.
You decide then that it might be a good idea to put together and gather to hand some battle dressings and antibiotics and fluids to help you survive the wounds he will inflict. Maybe a bit of food and such to ride out the prolonged recovery you might expect if you survive. You check your bag to see what you’ve got, and scurry around to see what you can improvise from material at hand. You make plans for crawling off to get more after you’re shot, if you can. He’s getting closer.
Then it occurs to you that a cell phone with the numbers of neighbors and emergency responders might be helpful after he’s unloaded his mags into your body. You scurry through your pack to make sure you have that at hand. You can’t be too prepared. He’s almost in range now.
Without upsetting him with a threat of any sort, you then try to talk him out of his attack. He says nothing.
As he gets in range, brings his handgun up to target your center of mass, and squeezes the trigger, you find yourself engaged in an internal debate about any other last minute preparations you need to make, and about how best to proceed once the bullets strike.
Lights out.
It would be devastating...for Iran.
>>>You make some good points about not every device being effected, however, if there is no “juice” running to your outlets anymore it won’t matter all that much if your (fill in appliance here) is still ok.<<<
You’re correct. However, an infrastructure can be rebuilt - and the EMP isn’t going to remove the wires, just the generators and transformers. The technological knowledge also remains intact. And once the electricity is restored, the workable devices are still there, too.
I just don’t see our culture collapsing completely after an EMP. Partially, sure. I’d imagine that some places would be hellholes. On the other hand, I’d also imagine that some places would be up and running again within days.
Those folks who are either unprepared, either mentally, intellectually, or physically, would also seem to be the folks who will die or panic. Those who survive will already be prepared, and then they’ll go through the trial by fire. The high-fives in Caracas and Tehran wouldn’t last long.
My metaphor for Rome makes sense in my mind. They had a republic which was in constant upheaval from civil war and inner conflict, yet they kept expanding at the same time. When it looked like the republic would collapse, they established an empire. Outsiders look at us and see ferment and a lack of cohesion, but they’re not looking at the culture, and nothing brings about camaraderie than shared sacrifice. An EMP, in my opinion, would be a colossial error by the attacker. Culture isn’t the appliances in the kitchen. On the other hand, I can see some guy boiling water for a year getting more and more pissed off with each water haul, and when the infrastructure is rebuilt, that anger will be directed outward. IMHO
I agree.
On another level, I was at a conference recently and heard directly from those within the utility industry how many cyber attack attempts they are getting a week--most very sophisticated and thought to originate from foreign sponsored sources/governments. They are getting so many that they are almost (in my perception) numb to it and take it as an expectation.
Those attackers only need to be successful one time, and no messy fingerprints as the way a nuke/EMP would be.
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